This chapter covers the
first eighteen months of the Third Reich from January 1933 through August 1934.
The story begins with the early reactions to the appointment of Adolf Hitler as
Chancellor of Germany. The first document is from the diary of a young novelist
and plawrite, who was a determined anti-Nazi.

30 January 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

After
I parked the car, I bought a copy of the paper. Huge headlines: Adolf Hitler
Chancellor.My heart skipped a
beat. So it has happened.... As if I had been clubbed about the head, I walked
down the stairs to meet the train. It seemed to me that a dark shadow has now
fallen over the world, as if something horrible, something irrevocable,
something fateful has occurred.

Why
am I so shaken by this news? We have surely seen it coming. Many indeed thought
it was unavoidable; many and these are not necessarily the worst Germans will
now be jubilant. Why is my heart so heavy? A ferocious fear seizes me. Not a
fear for myself or my famil; this fear is deeper. It is a fear for Germany, for
her mission, for her future.

Perhaps
my information about this new chancellor is too sparse and that distorted by
election campaigns. But I cannot believe that everything which the newspapers I
read say about him and his followers is lies. And if only a tenth of what
they've written is true, then woe to poor Germany!. . .

Mother's
festive lunch, including appetizers, is little noticed. She herself is most
upset over Hitler's appointment. All her hatred for this "vagabond house
painter" is now renewed. Her passionate rejection of the Nazis is
completely emotional, based on a woman's intuition. She seeks no other grounds.
... "Six week," she cries excitedó ly, "it won't last longer
than that."My father is
skeptical:"This does not
appear to be a cabinet like the others, which one day will simply resign.""But they will have to, when they
no longer have a majority supporting them?" asks mother.

"Even
today they do not have a majority behind them. They don't even claim that
themselves. I believe they will remain," says my father very slowly,
"until their political base crumbles." "Then we will certainly
not have to wait a long time," mother inserts. "I wonder if I will
live to see the day," my father said softly. "I don't believe
so."

I
was terrified, for suddenly I felt the truth of his presentment. It became very
quiet at that moment. We four, the two old white-haired people and the two
young men, Klaus and I, sank into silence. And then suddenly I said something
quite dumb, said it without even thinking. "It will last until after the
next lost war!" Everyone laughed.

Ebermayer's
family, however, was not typical. Frau Luise Solmitz, a housewife and former
elementary school teacher, who lived in Hamburg, reflected in her enthusiastic
accounts of the first day of the new government a more characteristic note.
What makes this entry so unusual, however, is that Luise was married to an
ex-pilot and decorated war hero, who was Jewish.

6 February 1933 Luise Solmitz Diary Entry

[In
Hamburg] a torchlight parade of National Socialists and Steel Helmets [the
political organization of veterans] A wonderfully uplifting experience for us
all. Gring says that the naming of Hitler and a cabinet of national
concentration was like the Spirit of 1914, and today's parade was like that
too....

Last
Sunday Gisela[their 14 year
old daughter]
saw it;the Reds held their
demonstration and tried to enlarge their parade by adding women and children,
and they were forced to march through the mud of a bitter rain storm. Indeed
today the Socialists and the Red Front must operate by using obligatory
participation.

But
today the weather was beautiful. Dry, without any wind, and somewhat warmer than
usual. At 9:30 p.m. we took up our positions, Gisela with us. I said that she
could remain until the end, for up to now the children have had such a
miserably bad impression of all things political that I thought they, and we
too, should experience a strong national demonstration that would offset all
that other stuff and remain with us as a treasured memory. And this is what
happened! It was close to 10 before the first marchers passed us, and then
there followed, like waves in the ocean, more than 20,000 Brown Shirts, their
enthusiastic faces lit by the flames of the torches. "Three Cheers for our
Fhrer, our Chancellor, Adolf Hitler," and they chanted: "The
Republic is shit" and sang out the colors "Black-Red-and-Mustard."Others sang "Murdered at Sterneschanz."
Dreckmann had been murdered there, and by chance I spied his name writtó en on
a banner, perhaps one that was carried by the section he belonged to. All the
banners and symbols seemed almost Roman.

Then
came the Steel Helmets, a gray flood, quieter, more thoughtful perhaps. They
carried our old flag, Black-White-Red, each crowned in the black crepe of
mourning. Franz (her husband) lifted his hat every time one of the flags
passed, and across the way four young Hitler Youths were standing and they
greeted every Steel Helmet flag and leader by raising their hands. How
beautiful and impressive to see that the quarrel between brothers, which has so
depressed us, has now been set aside! What has happened tonight is the way it
should and must remain.

Between
the SA groups and the Steel Helmets there marched some representatives of the
nationalistic student organizations.... At the conclusion of the parade came
the SS.

We
were drunk with enthusiasm, blinded from the lights of the torches which passed
before our faces, and completely surrounded most times by the smoke which
swirled around as like a sweet cloud of incense. And before us marched men, men
and more men, brown-shirted, colored student outfits [of the fraternities],
grey uniforms, and then more brown shirts, a flood lasting an hour and twenty
minutes. In the blinking lights of the torches all the faces seemed the same,
endlessly repeating, but there were in fact between 22 and 25,000 different
individuals there.

Next
to us stood a young boy of about three, who constantly raised his tiny hand
saying "Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler man!" ... When all the marchers had
passed, it still was not over, for after the last SS groups, the harmlessly
rejoicing crowd joined in and formed their own parade, celebrating the joy of
the moment....

Unity,
finally, finally, and how long will it last?! But the important thing is that
we all now realize that we are only Germans. What must Hitler be feeling when
he sees 100,000 people marching along, a crowd which he has called into being,
into which he has breathed, or once again awakened, a national soul, people who
are ready to die for him. And the people are not only saying this as a ritual,
but in bitter seriousness....

An
SA man this morning said to Gisela: "Now it is no longer a question of
saying 'Heil Hitler,' but rather of saying 'Heil Deutschland'." "Down
with the Jews" was also shouted out from time to time, and they sang about
Jewish blood spurting form the knife wounds.

[Post-war
addition by Frau Solmitz, at this point in the diary:"Whoever took such sayings seriously at the time."]

The first official action
of the new government was to issue a proclamation. It was carefully composed by
Vice-Chancellor [and former Chancellor] Franz von Papen, approved by Hitler,
and did not seem very disturbing.

31 January 1933 Appeal by
the Government of National Concentrationto the German People

More
than fourteen years have passed since the unhappy day when the German people,
blinded by promises from foes at home and abroad, lost touch with honor and
freedom, thereby losing everything. Since that day of treachery [the Revolution
of 1918/19], the Almighty has withheld His blessing from our people. Dissension
and hatred descended upon us. With profound distress millions of the best
Germans, from all walks of life, have seen the unity of the nation vanish,
dissolving in a confusion of political and personal opinions, economic
interests and ideological differences.... We never received the equality and
fraternity we had been promised, and we lost our liberty to boot. For when our
nation lost its political place in the world, it soon lost its unity of spirit
and will....

The
misery of our people is horrible to behold!Millions of the industrial proletariat are unemployed and
starving; the whole of the middle class and small artisans have been
impoverished. When this collapse finally reaches the German peasants, we will
be faced with a catastrophe of vast proportions. For then not only shall a
Reich collapse, but a two-thousand-year-old inheritance, some of the loftiest
products of human culture and civilization.

All
around us are symptoms portending this breakdown.With an unparalleled effort of will and of brute force the
Communist method of madness is trying as a last resort to poison and undermine
an inwardly shaken and uprooted nation.. It seeks to poison and disrupt in
order to hurl us into an epoch of chaos.... This negative, destroying spirit
spares nothing of all that is highest and most valuable. Beginning with the
family, it has undermined the very foundations of morality and faith and scoffs
at culture and business, nation and Fatherland, justice and honor. Fourteen
years of Marxism have ruined Germany [i.e. the Socialist Party of the Weimar
Republic]; one year of Bolshevism would destroy her. The richest and fairest
territories of the world would be turned into a smoking heap of ruins. Even the
sufferings of the last decade and a half could not be compared to the misery of
a Europe in the heart of which the red flag of destruction had been hoisted.
The thousands of wounded, the hundreds of dead which this inner strife has
already cost Germany should be a warning of the storm which would come....

In
those hours when our hearts were troubled about the life and the future of the
German nation, the aged leader of the World War [i.e. President Hindenburg]
appealed to us. He called to those of us in nationalist parties and leagues to
struggle under him once more, in unity and loyalty, for the salvation of the
German nation. This time the front lines are at home. The venerable
Reichspresident has allied himself with us in this noble endeavor. And as
leaders of the nation and the national Government we vow to God, to our conscience,
and to our people that we will faithfully and resolutely fulfill the task
conferred upon us.

An
appalling inheritance has fallen to the Government of National Concentration as
it takes over.The task with which
we are faced is the hardest which has fallen to German statesmen within the
memory of man. But we are all filled with unbounded confidence for we believe
in our people and their imperishable virtues. Every class and every individual
must help us to found the new Reich.

The
Government of National Concentration will regard it as its first and foremost
duty to revive in the nation the spirit of unity and cooperation. It will
preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built.
It regards Christianity as the foundation of our national morality, and the
family as the basis of our nation and our state....It will therefore declare merciless war on spiritual,political,and cultural nihilism.Germany must not and will not sink into Communist anarchy.... Turbulent
instincts must be replaced by a national discipline as the guiding principle of
our national life. All those institutions which are the strongholds of the
energy and vitality of our nation will be taken under the special care of the
Government.

The
Government of National Concentration intends to solve the problem of the
reorganization of trade and commerce with two four-year plans: The German
farmer must be rescued in order that the nation may be supplied with the
necessities of life... A concerted and all-embracing attack must be made on
unemployment in order that the German working class may be saved from
ruin....

The
November parties [i.e. Catholics,liberals,Socialists
associated with the founding of the Republic in the November 1918 Revolution] have ruined the German
peasantry in fourteen years. In fourteen years they have created an army of
millions of unemployed. The Government of National Concentration will, with
iron determination and unshakable steadfastness of purpose, put through the
following plan: Within four years the German peasant must be rescued from the
quagmire into which he has fallen. Within four years unemployment must be
finally overcome.Parallel with
this, and as the prerequisite for the recovering of the economy,we will combine this gigantic project
of restoring the economy with the task of putting the administration and the
finances of the Federal Government,the States,and the
Municipalities on a sound fiscal basis....Only when this has been accomplished can the idea of a
continued federal existence of the entire Reich be fully realized....

Compulsory
labor-service and a back-to-the-land policy are two of the basic principles of
this program. The securing of the necessities of life will include the
performance of social duties to the sick and aged. In economical
administration, the promotion of employment, the preservation of the farmer, as
well as in the exploitation of individual initiative, the Government sees the
best guarantee for the avoidance of any experiments which would endanger the
currency....

As
regards its foreign policy the Government of National Concentration considers
its highest mission to be the securing of the right to live and the restoration
of freedom to our nation. Its determination to bring to an end the chaotic
state of affairs in Germany will assist in restoring to the community of
nations a State of equal value and, above all, a State which must have equal
rights. It is impressed with the importance of its duty to use this notion of
equal rights as an instrument for the securing and maintenance of that peace
which the world requires today more than ever before. May the good will of all
others assist in the fulfillment of this our earnest wish for the welfare of
Europe and of the whole world.

-

Great
as is our love for our Army as the bearer of our arms and the symbol of our
great past, we should be happy if the world, by reducing its armaments, would
see to it that we need never increase our own.

If,
however, Germany is to experience this political and economic revival and
conscientiously fulfill her duties toward the other nations, one decisive step
is absolutely necessary first:We
must overcome the demoralization of Germany by the Communists.

We
of this Government feel responsible to German history for the restoration of
orderly life in the nation and for the final elimination of class madness and
class struggle. We recognize no classes, we see only the German people,
millions of peasants, bourgeoisie, and workers who will either overcome
together the difficulties of these times or be overcome by them. We are firmly
resolved and we have taken our oath. Since the present Reichstag is incapable
of lending support to this work, we ask the German people, whom we represent,
to perform the task themselves.

"

Reichspresident
von Hindenburg has called upon us to bring about the revival of the German
nation. Unity is our tool. Therefore we now appeal to the German people to
support this reconciliation. The Government of National Concentration wishes to
work and it will work. WE did not ruin the German nation for fourteen years,
but now WE will lead the nation back to health. WE are determined to make well
in four years, the ills of fourteen years. The Marxist parties and their
lackeys have had fourteen years to show what they can do. The result is a heap
of ruins.

Now,
people of Germany, give us four years and then pass judgment upon us. In
accordance with Field Marshal von Hindenburg's command we shall begin now. May
God Almighty give our work His blessing, strengthen our purpose, and endow us
with wisdom and the trust of our people, for we are fighting not for ourselves
but for Germany.

The cabinet Hitler joined
was strongly balanced against him. In addition to Hitler, the Nazis had only
two cabinet positions, Wilhelm Frick (Interior) and Hermann Gring (without
Portfolio). Alfred Hugenberg of the Conservative DNVP was given two positions.
(Economics and Agriculture), both of which he decided to hold himself. Former
Chancellor and ex-Center Party member Franz von Papen, of course, was
Vice-Chancellor.The rest of
the cabinet were non-party experts:Constantin Baron von Neurath (Foreign Affairs); General Werner Baron von
Blomberg (Defense); Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk (Finance); Franz Grtner
(Justice); Franz Seldte of the Steel Helmets (Labor); Paul Baron Eltz von
Rbenach (Transportation); and Gunther Gereke (Employment). Papen was confident
that he could control the situation, and the first few weeks seemed to confirm
this prediction.

Franz von Papen's Post-war Account of the
Workings of the Cabinet

I
experienced much less difficulty than I had expected in formulating a coalition
program. Hitler thought the moral regeneration of the nation to be our principal
task. He suggested that economic reconstruction should be accomplished in two
four-year plans, and mentioned, for the first time, the necessity of passing an
Enabling Law for this purpose. I thought a four-year-plan sounded too much like
Soviet methods, but agreed that a set program was necessary. For my part, I
laid down those lines of conservative thought which I considered should serve
as a framework for our policies and suggested one or two phrases: "The
Government recognizes the Christian basis of moral existence and regards the
family as the basic unit in the nation, requiring the particular protection of
the State." We agreed to strengthen the federal structure of the country
by promoting healthy State and Municipal Government, while maintaining sound
central direction. In the field of foreign affairs, the Government intended to
strive for equal rights in the community of nations, "fully aware of the
responsibilities of a great and free nation in the maintenance and
consolidation of peace, more necessary to the world than ever before."
Hitler gave full approval to these declarations, to which we added the
suggestion that a general reduction in armaments would do away with the
necessity for any increase in our own.

Later,
Papen was to admit that he had made a horrible mistake in his calculations:
"My own fundamental error was to underrate the dynamic power which had
awakened the national and social instincts of the masses." (Memoirs, 256).

Evidence
of this awakened spirit were soon apparent to any who wanted to see it.

11 February 1933 Ebermayer Diary Entry

Yesterday
was the first Huge-Massive-Monster- Rally in the Berlin ÒSportspalast˙

since the "Uprising" [the
new Nazi term for Hitler's appointment as chancellor]. The event was carried
live on all the radio stations. The Fhrer opens the election campaign!
Goebbels spoke first and with extreme cleverness described the atmosphere of
the mass gathering. Hitler was received with a storm of applause. Then he
delivered a speech that covered recent history and soared into a fever pitch
that carried all before it. Clearly the man thrives on the tasks that lie
before him. At the conclusion he actually started to pray, and ended with the
word "Amen!" Exactly the right mixture for his listeners: brutality,
threats, flaunting of power, and then humility before the oft-cited
"all-Powerful." The masses in the ˙Sportspalast˙ were driven into
ecstasy.

The
rally which, as Goebbels stated, was broadcast to twenty or thirty million
Germans by the radio, is doubtlessly a great success for Hitler. Today what an
instrument for mass-propaganda is the radio! And how little have Hitler's
opponents made use of it till now!It is almost as it there simply were no radio before 30 January.
Inconceivable! The poor God-forsaken parties of the middle class, how easily
they let their power be snatched from their hands! Perhaps their hands were
really not competent and worthy of holding power?Doubts pile upon doubts during these sleepless hours of the
night....

And
meanwhile, the Nazis are daily beginning more to show their fists. Minister
President [the German term for Governor] Noske in Hanover and a whole series of
other "Socialist Bosses" have been removed by Gring....

13 February 1933 Ebermayer Diary Entry

In
the evening I sat down with Max Brockhaus the music publisher, Dr. Bumke
President of the Supreme Court, Professor Thiemann the director of the Art
Academy, and Anton Klippenberg the publishe -- rall of them experienced, clever
men, whose ironic reserve toward the new government does one good, but I would
much prefer to have seen some passionate opposition. The talk was about Bruno
Walter.In general they appear
convinced that Hitler's anti-Semitic program, even if it is ever put into
practice, would certainly not extend to the great artistic and intellectual
personalities, if for no other reason than to avoid unfavorable response from
abroad. The government will certainly prevent the further migration into
Germany of Jews from the East, but for the past year or two other
administrations have done the same thing and perhaps this government will expel
the East-Jews now in Germany. But no one expects more than that. Bruno Walter
will certainly, no matter what else happens, preserve his positions.Bumke also has no fears for the
personnel of the judicial system. Whatever Jews are in the court system have
long ago been baptized and even these are only a small percentage....

Papen's Post-war Account of the Impotence of
the Cabinet

In
practical terms, the mistake was to consider the apparatus of the State
sufficiently intact and independent to assert itself, under Conservative
leadership, against the propaganda methods and machinery of the Nazi movement.
What had happened was that the long years of party warfare had undermined the
apparatus [of the State], though none of us realized how far the process had
gone.

If Conservatives were
becoming aware of their powerlessness, the years had also undermined the
ability of the Left to resist. Bedeviled by a split between Communists and
Social Democrats, and with their Trade Unions weakened by three years of mass
unemployment, the prospects for a general strike such as had defeated the Kapp
putsch in 1920 were not encouraging. Nevertheless,the Communist Party issued a call for a General Strike on the day the
new cabinet was announced:

30 January 1933 Communist Party Appeal

The
bloody, barbaric, Fascist reign of terror has been erected in Germany.Masses, do not let this deadly enemy of
the German Volk,this deadly enemy
of workers and poor peasants,of
all workers in cities and in the countryside,carry out its criminal actions!Arm yourselves against the blows and terror of the Fascist
counter-revolution!Defend yourselves
against the limitless social reaction of the fascist dictatorship!

Onto
the streets!Close down the
factories. Answer at once the blows of the Fascist bloodhounds with a Strike, a
mass strike, a general strike!

Men
and women of the working class, young workers too, give out the call for a
general strike,in all of your
factories,bureaus,in all your workers' organizations,in the unemployment lines, a General
Strike against the fascist dictatorship. Fix yourselves on laying down
work!Fix yourselves on mass
demonstrations!Vote for united
front committees and strike leadership!Organize the fight!

But such calls were not
popular.And the Socialist Party
appeal of the same day took quite a different approach.

The
Harzburg Front has been resurrected in the Hitler-Papen-Hugenberg cabinet.The enemies of the working class, who
were attacking each other savagely only a few days ago,have joined together in a common attack
upon the working class,and in a
reactionary mega-capitalist and mega-agricultural concentration. The hour
demands unity of the entire working population in order to fight against this
newly united enemy.It demands
readiness to put into action the last and most extreme strength.

We
carry out our fight on the basis of the Constitution, and will defend by
employing all means every attack upon the political and social rights of the
people which are guaranteed in that Constitution and in the laws.Every attempt by this government to use
or establish its powers against the Constitution will be met with the most
extreme resistance of the working class and all elements of the population who
love freedom.

Undisciplined
activities of individual organizations, or groups operating on their own
initiative, will only bring heavy damage to the united working class.Therefore remain united in the Iron
Front!Follow only its
orders!The watchwords of the hour
are:Bravery,determination,discipline,unity and once again unity.

Many
Socialists assumed their party would survive persecution even as it had under
Bismarck, while others worried about choosing the right moment to resist. The
new Government had, after all, been installed according to the letter of the
Constitution and, at least so far, had operated legally, so the SPD leadership
in particular feared being provoked into unconstitutional actions which would
only give the new Government the excuse it needed to crush the movement with
legal violence

Although
some rank and file members wanted to resist the regime by force of arms, the
SPD leadership had for so long been accustomed to working peaceful and legally
with the constitutional government, they were temperamentally unó suited to
lead a campaign of violent resistance, particularly after the demoralizing
political experience of the previous three years. Many of these considerations
dominated the emergency meeting called by the SPD Executive Committee.

5 February 1933 Minutes of
the SPD Executive Committee Meeting with Representatives of the Free Trade
Unions

Wels
[SPD] declares that he summoned the meeting with representatives of the Trade
Unions to discuss what measures of defense should be taken. There are repeated
enquiries from the factories as to when they should stop work. The comrades had
been calmed down but there have been a lot of discussion in the factories about
a united front [with the Communists]. Arrests and newspaper bans were
increasing and there was the danger that some particular incident might start
the ball rolling...We know that
we are far from being anxious and from acting rashly, but we have to come to an
agreement about what might have to be done. If there were a General Strike,
then there would be no question of elections. being held.If the avalanche starts, we must try to
guide it into our channels...

Leipart
[Trade Union leader]...He had to raise the question of what our aim would be in
a general strike. Those workers who were now employed would be afraid of losing
their jobs. There would, therefore, not be much enthusiasm for a General
Strike. They would, however, probably follow our call.

Then
one should bear in mind that the Nazis were in a strong position with their SA
which would probably occupy the factories in the event of a strike. If the only
goal we could proclaim was: We're calling a general strike to re-establish
constitutional conditions. That would probably not be enough and it is
questionable whether we would have any other slogans.

And
even if the Communist workers joined in, there would still be a certain split
in the movement because we would be fighting for the Constitution and the Comó
munists against it...He came
...to the conclusion that we should still wait until an open breach of the
Constitution has occurred.

˙

Stampfer
[SPD]...He is not so opposed to a limited General Strike of about a day. But
that will only be possible if there is a prior agreement with the Communists.
We will then have to tell them straight out that our aim is not the
establishment of a Soviet Germany.

Grassmann
[SPD] considers that if we were to follow Stampfer's advice we might as well
pack it up. Nothing at all would come of a discussion with the Communists...

Wels:The discussion has shown that our views
are in complete agreement and that everyone is of the opinion that we must put
ourselves at the head of the movement.

ü

Hermann
Gring was determined to prevent any such development. Although not given a
ministry in the Federal Government, Gring had been appointed Minister of the
Interior in the State of Prussia (which comprised nearly 2/3's of Germany). As
Minister of the Interior, Gring controlled the Police of Prussia, and in the
absence of a Federal Police, the Prussian Police were essentially the German
police force.He was quick to
swing into action.

17 February 1933 Hermann Gring Order to the
Prussian Police ˙

I
believe that it is unnecessary to point out specifically that the police must
in all circumstances avoid giving even the appearance of a hostile attitude,
still less the impression of persecuting the patriotic associations [i.e. the
Nazi Storm Troopers and the Steel Helmets]. I expect rather that all police
authorities seek out and maintain the best relations with these organizations
which comprise the most important constructive forces of the State. Patriotic
activities and propaganda are to be supported by every means. Police
restrictions and impositions must be used only in the most urgent cases.

The
activities of subversive organizations are, on the other hand, to be combated
with the most drastic methods. Communist terrorist acts and attacks are to be
proceeded against with all severity, and weapons must be used ruthlessly when
necessary. Police officers, who in the execution of this duty, use their
firearms will be supported by me without regard to the effect of their shots;
on the other hand, officers who fail from a false sense of consideration may
expect disciplinary measures.

The
protection of the patriotic population which has been continually hampered in
their activities, demands the most drastic application of legal regulations
against banned demonstrations, illegal assemblies, lootings, instigation to
treason and sedition, mass strikes, risings, press offenses, and the other
punishable acts of the disturbers of order.

Every
state official must constantly bear in mind that failure to act is more serious
than errors committed in acting. I expect and hope that all officers feel
themselves at one with me in the aim of saving our fatherland from the ruin
which threatens it by strengthening and unifying the patriotic forces.

The real issue, however,
was the forthcoming Reichstag elections. Hitler was determined to gain an absolute
majority, and he kicked off the campaign with a fund-raising conference with
leading industrialists.

17 February 1933 Krupp Notes of Hitler's
Speech to Industrialists

[Hitler
said] It is not enough to say: "We do not want Communism in our economy."
If we continue on our old political course, then we shall perish. We have fully
experienced in the past years that economics and politics cannot be separated.
The political conduct of the struggle is the primary, decisive factor.
Therefore, politically clear conditions must be reached.

As
economics alone had not made the German Reich, so politics did not make
economics. But each one built steadily upon the other. Just as politics and
economics, working hand in hand brought us to the top, so the working of one
against the other, as we have experienced it since the revolution, meant our
continuous decline. As I lay in the hospital in 1918, I experienced the
revolution in Bavaria. From the very beginning, I saw it as a crisis in the
development of the German people, as a period of transition. Life always tears
humanity apart.It is, therefore,
the noblest task of a leader to find ideals that are stronger than the factors
which pull people apart. I recognized, even while in the hospital, that new
ideas must be sought which are conducive to reconstruction. I found them in
Nationalism....

Now
we are facing the last elections. No matter what the outcome, there will be no
retreat, even if the coming election does not bring about a decision. If the
election does not decide, the decision must be brought about in one way or
another by other means. I have decided to give the people once more the chance
of deciding their fate for themselves. This move is a strong asset for whatever
may happen later. If the election brings no result, well, Germany will not be
ruined.

Today,
as never before, everyone is under an obligation to pledge themselves to
success. The need to make sacrifices has never been greater than now. As for
the economy, I have only one wish that together with the internal political
structure, it may look forward to a calm future.The question of the restoration of the armed forces will not
be decided at [the Disarmament Conference in] Geneva, but in Germany, when we
have gained internal strength through internal peace. There will, howó ever, be
no internal peace until Marxism is eliminated. Here lies the decisionwhich we must face up to, hard as the
struggle may be. I put my life into this struggle day after day, as do all
those who have joined me in it. There are only two possibilities: either to
resist the opponent by constitutional means, for this purpose, once again, the
election is necessary; or the struggle will be conducted with other weapons,
which may demand greater sacrifices. I would like to see them avoided. I hope
therefore that the German people recognize the greatness of the hour. It will
be decisive for the next ten or probably even the next hundred years. It will
prove a turning-point in German history, to which I pledge myself with burning
energy.

Backed
by the awesome power of the State, and with several million Reichsmarks raised
from the industrialists he had so bluntly addressed,Hitler unleashed a propaganda campaign which he was
persuaded would win his party an absolute majority. But surprisingly, and
despite the pressures daily being produced by official and party organizations,
an equally strong campaign was waged by the anti-Nazi ˙

groups.

17 February 1933 Declaration by 13 Catholic
Youth Organizations

What
has taken place in our country since the elections last March [the re-election
of President Hindenburg, 13 March 1932] is nothing less than national
corruption....

We
seek in vain, among the measures and composition of the new Federal Government
for any evidence supporting the renewal of our people in a Christian or
Nationalist sense....Rather, we
see confirmed [the truth of the statement]: Bolshevism can also exist under a
nationalist facade.

Unhappy with this continued
opposition, on 22 February, Herman Gring ordered contingents of the SA and SS
to be added to the Prussian Police, to strengthen that institution. This move,
coupled with the brutal actions taken by local SA units against enemies,
intimidated large numbers ofGermans.

Dear
Comrades:The incidents of
the past few days in the meetings of those comrades,who might be called prominent, have prompted the SPD Party
committee this morning to examine the question whether, in the interests of our
audiences, it would not be better to withdraw these speakers, of which I am
one, for the time being. Several of my meetings have been disrupted and a considerable
section of the audience had to be taken away badly injured. In agreement with
the Party committee, I therefore request the cancellation of meetings with me
as speaker. As things are, there is obviously no longer any police protection
sufficient to check the aggressive actions of the SA and SS at my
meetings.

In
the city of Hindenburg, Comrade Nolting barely escaped being killed. I had a
similar experience in Langenbielau. One of my companions was knocked down. In
Breslau last night a terrible disaster was only prevented by the chance delay
of SA formations which had been mobilized. Nonetheless, a great number were
injured, and in a city which has so far been able to prevent the disruption of
meetings by our opponents....

The open terror threatened
particularly card-carrying members who held civil-service jobs.

17 February 1933 Letter from an SPD Member
to the Hanover SPD Secretary

I
hereby return my membership card and signify my resignation from the
Party.I am and remain a faithful
socialist!Under the pressure of
circumstances, the SPD, even against its will, will be pushed aside and into
the methods of left-wing radicalism. On the other hand, pressure from the
opposite side will grow. The only thing left for me to do in all conscience as
a teacher, a Christian, and a German is to try to evade the double pressure
and, as ten years ago, try to live for my job, my family and my books, without
being a member of a party.Yours
faithfully, GEORGE M

The Reichstag Fire

In
this atmosphere of terror, Hitler received a lucky break. On 27 February, a
week before the election, the Reichstag building was set on fire and a young
Dutch Communist named Martinus van der Lubbe was caught apparently red-handed
in the building.A contemporary
witness was the police chief in charge of the investigation, Rudolf Diels, the
head of the Prussian political police soon to become known as the GESTAPO. In
his post-war memoirs, he recalled what happened that night, when he reported to
his new boss, Hermann Gring, the Prussian Minister of the Interior:

Postwar Memoirs of Rudolf Diels, head of the
Prussian Political Police in 1933

When
I pushed my way into the burning building with Schneider, we had to climb over
the bulging hoses of the Berlin fire brigade, although, as yet, there were few
onlookers. A few officers of my department were already engaged in
interrogating Martinus van der Lubbe. Naked from the waist upwards, smeared
with dirt and sweating, he sat in front of them, breathing heavily. He panted
as if he had completed a tremendous task. There was a wild triumphant gleam in
the burning eyes of his pale, haggard young face. I sat opposite him in the
police headquarters several times that night and listened to his confused
stories. I read the Communist pamphlets he carried in his trouser pockets. They
were of the kind which in those days were publicly distributed everywhere. And
from the primitive hieroglyphics of his diary, I tried to follow his trips down
to the Balkans. The voluntary confessions of Martinus van der Lubbe prevented
me from thinking that an arsonist who was such an expert in his folly needed
any helpers. Why should not a single match be enough to set fire to the cold
yet inflammable splendor of the Chamber, the old upholstered furniture, the heavy
curtains, and the bone-dry wooden paneling!But this specialist had used a whole knapsack full of
inflammable material. He had been so active that he had laid several dozen
fires. With a firelighter, called the "Industrious Housewife," he had
set the Chamber aflame. Then he had rushed through the big corridors with his
burning shirt which he brandished in his right hand like a torch to lay more
fires under the old leather sofas. During this hectic activity he was
overpowered by Reichstag officials.

He
also confessed to several smaller arson attacks in Berlin, the mysterious cause
of which had aroused the attention of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Several details suggested that Communist arsonists who had helped him in
Neuklln and the Berlin Town Hall might have helped him with the Reichstag. The
interrogating officers had pointed their investigations in this direction. But
meanwhile things of a quite different nature had happened.

Shortly
after my arrival in the burning Reichstag, the National Socialist elite had
arrived. Hitler and Goebbels had driven up in their large cars; G ring,Frick
and Count Helldorf arrived; Daluege, the police chief, was not there.

One
of Hitler's chief adjutants came to look for me in the maze of corridors, now alive
with the fire brigade and the police. He passed me Gring's order to appear in
the select circle. On a balcony jutting out into the Chamber, Hitler and his
trusty followers were assembled. Hitler stood leaning his arms on the stone
parapet of the balcony and stared silently into the red sea of flames. The
first hysterics were already over. As I entered, Gring came towards me. His
voice was heavy with the emotion of the dramatic moment: "This is the
beginning of the Communist revolt, they will start their attack now! Not a
moment must be lost!"

Gring
could not continue. Hitler turned to the assembled company. Now I saw that his
face was purple with agitation and with the heat gathering in the dome. He
shouted uncontrollably, as I had never seen him do before, as if he was going
to burst: "There will be no mercy now. Anyone who stands in our way will
be cut down. The German people will not tolerate leniency. Every Communist
official will be shot where he is found. The Communist deputies must be hanged
this very night. Everybody in league with the Communists must be arrested.
There will no longer be any leniency for Social Democrats either."

I
reported on the results of the first interrogations of Martinus van der Lubbe
that in my opinion he was a maniac. But with this opinion I had come to the
wrong man; Hitler ridiculed my childish view: "That is something really
cunning, prepared a long time ago. The criminals have thought all this out
beautifully; but they've miscalculated, haven't they, Comrades! These gangsters
have no idea to what extent the people are on our side. They don't hear the
rejoicing of the crowds in their rat holes, from which they now want to
emerge," and so it went on.

I
pulled Gring aside; but he did not let me start: "Police on an emergency
footing; shoot to kill; and any other emergency regulations which might be
appropriate in such a case." I said again that a police radio message
would be sent to all police stations in his name, putting the police in a state
of alert and ordering the arrest of those Communist officials whose
imprisonment had been intended for some time in the event of a ban on the
Party. Gring was not listening: "No Communist and no Social Democrat
traitor must be allowed to escape us" were his last words. When I met [his
deputy] Schneider again I tried to collect my thoughts:

"This
is a mad-house, Schneider, but apart from that the time has come: all Communist
and Social Democrat officials are to be arrested, big raids, a state of alert
and all that goes with it!"

Schneider
forgot the Social Democrats when he passed on Gring's order as a radio
message. When I returned to [Berlin Police headquarers] the 'Alex' after
midnight it was buzzing like a beehive. The alerted operational battalions of
the police stood lined up in long rows in the entrance ways with steel helmets
and rifles. While squad vans arrived and whole troops of detectives with
registers prepared many years before jumped on the ramps, joined by uniformed
officers, the first cars were arriving back at the entrance of the building
with dazed prisoners who had been woken up from their sleep....

The public reaction was one of astonishment

27
February 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry ˙

Suddenly
at the beginning of the midnight news report, the radio announcer's voice in
great excitement proclaims: "The Reichstag Building is burning."
Every conversation in the small caf ceases. We learn that the Reichstag in
Berlin was today set afire by the Communists.The whole building is engulfed in flames. The dome threatens
to collapse. One of the arsonists is already arrested; he is a young Dutch
communist named van der Lubbe. We are all dumbfounded. How can anyone
understand this insane act, shortly before the elections, shortly before the
voting which Goebbels has so carefully prepared and called the "Day of the
Awakening Volk." What could have driven the communists to such a heroic
act of despair!Didn't they know
that the Nazis would gladly welcome such an event?

M
accompanied me to the house....My
father was still working at his desk. I bring him the news. He was silent a few
seconds, and then announced in his finest Bavarian dialect?:"'Course, they've set it
themselves...."But the
arrested communist? Can they simply invent him?"From his fifty years of experience as a prosecuting
attorney, my father smiles.

February 1933 Luise Solmitz Diary Entry

The
Communists have set the Reichstag on fire, a horrible fire, which has been
deliberately started in various places in the building.

The
thoughts and hopes of most Germans is completely concentrating upon Hitler; his
reputation soars to the stars; he is the savior for an evil and saddened German
world.... When we ask people of every rank and educational background "Who
are you voting for?", [the answer] is always the same: "Why we're
voting for the same as everyone else, list #1, only Hitler."And a few cases, like us, are
hesitating between #1 and #5 [DNVP] . ÉAn ordinary looking young man walked by, seeing nothing, hearing
nothing, but all by himself singing in a booming voice a Nazi song. Franz said
"It sounded like he was praying. It's becoming a religion."

28
February 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry ˙

In
violation of the rights of parliamentary immunity, all Communist Reichstag
members are arrested. All Communist Party functionaries are arrested. So too
are the leaders of the Social Democratic Party. Why? Does the government assume
that they stand behind the setting of the fire? Will the government claim that
the Socialists encouraged and incited the arsonist? But no, it appears that we
must stop trying to find rational arguments. The Revolution creates its own
legalities....Now for the
first time since last night, the Revolution has truly begun.

Wishing
to legalize the arrests, Ludwig Grauert, an official in the Prussian Ministry
of the Interior and a German Nationalist [not Nazi] suggested an
"emergency decree against arson and terrorist acts." He gained
Hitler's approval. Both conceived the decree as a purely defensive measure, and
in its draft form it was directed specifically against the Communists.

Before
the Cabinet meeting where it was to be discussed, however, the Reich Minister
of the Interior, Frick, completely changed its thrust. Under the Weimar
Constitution the powers of the Reich Minister of the Interior were extremely
limited; individual state governments had direct authority over both their
police and internal administration. Now,apparently acting on his own, Frick decided to use the opportunity
presented by the Reichstag Fire to strengthen his Ministry's control over the
states. Note that in the following decree Article 2 enabled Frick as Reich
Minister of the Interior to assume power in each state.

28 February 1933 Decree for the Protection
of the People and State

Article
1

Sections
114, 115, 117, 123, 124 and 153 of the Constitution ... .are suspended until
further notó ice. Thus restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free
expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly
and association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic and
telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for
confiscations as well as restricó tions on property rights are permissible
beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.

Article
2

If in a state other measures necessary
for the restoration of public security and order are not taken, the Reich
Government may temporarily take over the powers of the highest state
authorities....

Article
4

Whoever provokes, or appeals for, or
incites to the disobedience of the orders given out by the supreme authorities
or authorities subject to them for the execution of this decree ... is
punishable insofar as the deed is not covered by other decrees with more severe
punishments with imprisonment of not less than one month, or with a fine from
150 up to 15,000 Reichsmarks.

Whoever
endangers human life by violating Article 1 is to be punished by sentence to a
penitentiary with imprisonment of not less than six months and, when violation
causes the death of a person, with death....

Whoever
provokes or incites to an act contrary to public welfare is to be punished with
a penitentiary sentence with imprisonment of not less than three months....

Seizing
upon the wonderful break of the Reichstag fire, the Nazi electoral campaign now
took off.The government released
hair-raising stories about Communist threats.The public had little difficulty believing these purely
fictitious charges.

New Elections

1 March 1933 Luise Solmitz Diary Entry

I
telephones.... She never had any use for Hitler. I asked how her house was
voting? She was almost insulted: "Why Hitler, naturally! No one else can
even be considered. We must support his cause with all means!" This
conversation decided me ... for all those who once would never even consider
him are now voting for the man who has long been the only one who has really
excited me politically, because without any formal program he wants exactly
that which I want, and which Germany, also without any program, wants....

The
government has issued a statement [on the Reichstag Fire].... Gring, speaking
like an old, experienced official, reports in a dry yet completely serious
fashion the horrible murderous plans of the Communists who have withdrawn into
their stronghold of Hamburg. He began with the account of the raid on the Karl
Liebknecht House, where the police found a complete system of subterranean
passages and attic chambers.... Hundreds of implicating documents were
uncovered:hostages to be taken
from bourgeois families, wives and children of police officers to be used as
shields, destruction of all cultural monuments just as in Russia palaces,
museums, churches. They were to begin with the Reichstag. Twenty-eight
different fires set there. The entire Communist leadership [in Germany]
arrested. Thlmann has fled to Copenhagen. The Communists had intended to send
armed groups of Reds into the villages to murder and burn, and then when the
cities had been stripped of police, the terror would break out in the large
municipalities:poison, boiling
water, any implement from the most refined to the most primitive, would be
turned into a weapon. It reads like a cops and robber story were it not for the
fact that we have the case of Russia, which has experienced all the asiatic
torture and orgy, which a German mind, even when sick, is incapable of
devising, and, when healthy, is unable to believe.

If
Italy, America, and England were clever, they would send us money right away,
in order to fight Bolshevism. For our destruction will be their
destruction!Gring says
that he has not lost his nerve, and he won't lose it. I hope the voters won't
lose their nerve and stay away from the polling booths out of fear. For truly
the streets are today a battle field!

3 March 1933 Gring Speech in Frankfurt

Fellow
Germans, my measures will not be crippled by any judicial thinking.My measures will not be crippled by any
bureaucracy. Here I don't have to worry about Justice, my mission is only to
destroy and exterminate, nothing more.This struggle will be a struggle against chaos, and such a struggle I
shall not conduct with the power of the police. A bourgeois State might have done
that. Certainly, I shall use the power of the State and the police to the
utmost, my dear Communists, so don't draw any false conclusions; but the
struggle to the death, in which my fist will grasp your necks, I shall lead
with those down there -- the Brown Shirts.

For Hitler's final speech
before the voting, Joseph Goebbels, who had taken over control of the State
Radio system on 1 March, pulled out all the stops.

4
March 1933 Goebbels Diary Entry, ˙

The
great "Day of the Awakening Nation" has come. Land at two o'clock in
the old coronation town of Knigsberg [in East Prussia]. The last preparations
made for the meeting in the evening. All will go off splendidly. I outline the
day's events and describe the anticipated effect the celebration will have. The
Fhrer speaks with utmost fervor and devotion. When at the end he mentions that
the President of Germany and he had clasped hands the one having released
Prussia from the enemy as a Field-Marshal, the other having done his duty in
the West as a simple soldier solemn silence reigns and deep emotion holds the
whole assembly. The Dutch Hymn of Thanksgiving, the last verse of which is
drowned in the clamor of the bells from the Knigsberg Cathedral, forms a
mighty chorus to crown his speech. This hymn goes throbbing on the ethereal
waves of the Radio over the whole of Germany. Forty million people are now
standing in the squares and in the streets, or are sitting in the Beer Halls
and their homes by the radio, and become conscious that the new era has dawned.
At this moment hundreds of thousands will decide to follow Hitler, and fight in
his spirit for the revival of the nation.

5
March 1933 Luise Solmitz Diary Entry ˙

The
great day. Our Kippingstreet bedecked with flags--Black-White-Red and Swastikas
-- has never looked so festive.

Should
no majority be reached by lists #1 and #5 [NSDAP and DNVP], we still hope that
Hitler won't budge an inch.... Hitler's speech yesterday in Knigsberg was so
moving that Frau H started to cry: "Now Thank We All Our God" ringing
out, accompanied by the gentle swelling, and then ever more powerful bells of
the Castle Church, followed by five minutes of silence on the radio, was really
gripping. Hitler's last speech before the elections, the high point of the
campaign.

By
now, the counting of the ballots has begun throughout Germany. At the very
least, Hitler has accompanied one thing, fewer parties are on the ballot,
really only ideological parties, for the laughable splinter groups have fallen
by the wayside. I rejoice in Hitler's lack of any platform, for a program is
either lies, or a path for ninnies, or a sign of weakness. The truly strong act
out of the necessities of the given moment and won't commit themselves in
advance, and then say "Oh, I can't do that because I have promised so and
so!" In the last analysis every person is his own program. ...

5
March 1933 Election Results for the Reichstag,(647 Seats)˙

SeatsVotes

ü

NSDAP28817,277,180

DNVP523,136,760

Catholics925,496,893

SPD1207,181,629

KPD814,848,058

5 March 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

In
the evening with father to Auerbach's Cellar, our old familiar gathering place,
in order to listen to the election returns. The "victory" is
certainly not nearly as great as we had feared, and indeed when measured by all
the effort that went into it, it is surprisingly small. The National Socialists
alone are far from reaching an absolute majority, even after disqualifying the
entire Communist Party vote! Counting the traitorous conservatives [who were
partners with Hitler in the cabinet], the government has only a narrow majority
of 51.8%. And so, in spite of the gigantic propaganda, in spite of the most
brutal suppression and elimination of all real opponents, in spite of the
fortunate coincidence (or crime?) of the Reichstag fire, and in spite of the
cleverest propaganda crusade in the press which any party in Germany has ever
mounted a Nazi-majority in the German people is still not a reality.

Splendid
Germans! In spite of everything, the workers stand immovably loyal to their
leaders.The Catholics immovably
loyal to their Church.And there
are even a few determined Democrats!48.2% of all the voters have had the courage to vote against Hitler or
to stay at home. I consider this day to be a victory and source of
comfort.

Only
the middle-class professionals that is my own social classis weak, cowardly,
ready for any betrayal and any compromise! That part of the middle class which
is now helping the Nazis to total power, to a "legal implementation"
of the revolution, bears the true guilt for whatever is now going to happen to
us.

5 March 1933 Luise Solmitz Diary Entry

[An
entry added late that night]... The results of the voting in Hamburg: Council
Seats: Hitler 5, Black-White-Red 1, Socialists 3, Communists 2.A fantastic, and
unexpected and intoxicating victory. We have the majority! Finally. It is a
victory which all of us who are of patriotic minds have accomplished for
Hitler. We small in faith, who have admired the will power which Hitler brought
into this election. Once again this man of genius was more clever, more
trusting than we.... The radio announces that Mayor Peterson has resigned ...
that the Swastika and the Black-White-Red flags have been hoisted at the police
station and at City Hall!! I still can't believe this is happening!!

In
Thuringia, a Central Committee of Jewish Citizens, or something like that ...
has spread rumors abroad that Hitler was preparing pogroms against Jews! And
others have claimed that Hitler himself had set the fires in the Reichstag....
Certainly the burning Reichstag has been extremely useful in this
election.

Midnight
... and I insist that we must go out.Before the police stations, joyful demonstrations of victory. Our flags
are waving on the roofs.... We encounter the parade of Brown Shirts and Steel
Helmets who have carried out the hoisting of the flags at the City Hall. We
walk on through the mild spring night. From the balcony of the City Hall there
hangs a huge Swastika.... "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil" ring out all about
us, from Hitler Youths, Steel Helmets, from the simply curious and those
intoxicated with joy.

The
City Hall clock strikes one. We go home.A mild opalescence hangs over the Alster, beautifully reflecting the
candleabras of the Lombard Bridge. I fall into bed, like a happy child, the
dear colors of our [old imperial] flags flow gently into dreams.

SA Reign of Terror

But
behind this happy picture of a peaceful transfer of power lay a much more
complicated story. The majority of the federal states were not yet controlled
by the Nazis, and local authorities, responsible for the police and for public
order, tried to maintain an attitude of neutrality towards the various
conflicting forces and to preserve civil liberties. But local Nazis, were
determined to exploit the momentum created by the election campaign to seize
power in the local states.

Their
approach began with intimidation from below by local mass action.The SA created disorders, usually
culminating in the hoisting of the swastika on the town hall; local Party
leadership then requested the Reich Ministry of the Interior [the Nazi Wilhelm
Frick] to intervene because the existing state authorities were incapable of
maintaining order and showed insufficient sympathy with the new Reich
Government. The Reich Minister of the Interior usually then appointed a leading
local Nazi as a Reich Police Commissioner and local Nazis could then intimidate
state and municipal governments into resignation and Nazi led governments were
then announced.

The
first state to experience this technique was Hamburg, where it occurred a few
days before the March election. A Nationalist Hamburg senator subsequently
complained to Vice-Chancellor von Papen.

Having
retired from the Senate and a new Senate having been elected, my sense of honor
and of duty towards the Reich obliges me to refer once again to the events
which took place in Hamburg on 3-5 March. I take the liberty of sending this
letter to you, because of my conviction that I am closest to you among all the
leading men of the Reich government.

On
the morning of 3 March, the Social Democrat senators resigned from the Senate
because they did not want to consent to the ban on the [Newspaper] ˙

contemplated
by the Reich Government. The remaining bourgeois senators pronounced this ban,
which was undoubtedly permissible by law, as their first official act.

After
the resignation of the Social Democrat senators, as the previous deputy police
chief, I had to take over the police. I knew that I had taken on a very
difficult office, but I had no idea that my administration would prove as
difficult as it at once became, owing to the activities of the Reich Ministry
of the Interior....

After
the resignation of the Social Democrat senators, the Senate's first duty was to
continue to carry out its functions in accordance with a strict observance of
the Constitution and the laws until the new election, and to try its best to
achieve an early election [of the senate]. This I was determined to do.

The
Reich Government had the clear duty of supporting the Senate as the official
organ of legal power. In my opinion, the Reich Ministry of the Interior, which
is mainly responsible for relations with the states, failed in its task. To a
large extent it bears the responsibility for the developments in Hamburg. The
city was quite calm; according to absolutely reliable information given to the
police, no serious disturbance of public order was to be expected from the
Left. The course of events has proved the correctness of this opinion held by
the police authorities. Yet, it was a group of police sympathetic to the Nazis
who hoisted the swastika on the town hall.

Unrest
occurred in Hamburg only because a few authorities, especially the Gau [i.e.
Regional] leadership of the NSDAP, sent alarmist reports to Berlin and caused
the Reich Minister of the Interior [Frick] to ask the Senate officially to
transfer the command of the police to the former police lieutenant, [SA leader]
Richter. This suggestion was apparently passed on from Berlin simultaneously to
the NSDAP and the press. In Hamburg it was underlined by wild press articles
and by pressure on the members of the Senate in personal discussions in a most
questionable way, and thus the situation was aggravated .

The
course which the Senate should have followed was laid down in the Constitution.
According to that Constitution and the law, it should have been unable to meet
the request which had been made. In my opinion, since the election to the
Senate was obviously to take place shortly, it was the Reich Minister's duty to
urge the Gau leadership of the NSDAP, which prided itself on its constant
contact with the Ministry, to maintain law and order so that the Constitution
and the law would not be broken before the forthcoming election. But, so far as
I could observe events, there were no such attempts at persuasion. Despite the
alarmist press articles, Hamburg remained completely peaceful; only the police,
among whom the NSDAP had begun an active propaganda campaign some time before,
began to waver

The
Hamburg events were, in my opinion, determined by the NSDAP's intention, known
to me since 3 March, of gaining control of the police before the election of
the Senate. This aim could not be achieved owing to the current legal situation
in Hamburg, therefore, the NSDAP tried to reach their goal via the Reich. Owing
to the fact that the NSDAP did not want to wait over the police question,
circumstances have developed in Hamburg which are very regrettable from the
point of view of police discipline and public order in the future....

It
is my firm conviction that, if the Reich Ministry of the Interior had used its
full authority to persuade the NSDAP to keep the peace, Hamburg would have been
spared the events of 5 March, so constitutionally and politically
unsatisfactory. The situation now is that, contrary to the solemn promises of
the Reich Government, an interference in Hamburg's sovereignty has taken place
which could have been avoided and is undesirable from the point of view of the
initial work on the Reich reform....

Since
the elections on March 5, had surprisingly given a majority in even Socialist
Hamburg to Hitler, Frick could argue that he had merely anticipated the vote by
illegally intervening in appointing the new Police Chief.But in Bavaria, where Hitler knew he
would never receive a majority from the loyal Catholic population, a similar
revolution from the top was engineered. Prime Minister Heinrich Held was toying
with the idea of appointing Prince Ruprecht, son of the last reigning Bavarian
King, as the head of the state, a kind of regent. This move would secure
Bavaria, he believed, from Nazi interference. But he too, had not counted on
the ruthless local Nazis.

The
following remarkable document comes from the files of Lina Heydrich, wife of
Reinhard Heydrich, the young and ambitious assistant to Heinrich Himmler in the
SS.

13 March 1933 Letter of Lina Heydrich

Dear
parents:What a life. You will
surely have read about our little Revolution [in Bavaria] in the newspapers.
According to Reinhard's stories, it must have been precious! Now, I would like
to tell you what I know of the developments.

On
Wednesday, [8 March], [her husband] Reinhard came early to the house with the
news that he had to return at once to the Brown House [Nazi Party
Headquarters], because the Bavarian Government would not submit [to SA demands
that General von Epp, a prominent Nazi, take over the government of Bavaria].
Thus, I would have to handle the arrangements concerning the shipping of the
furniture to Berlin [where the Heydrichs were about to move]. Oh oh, I thought,
something is going on. At about 11, Reinhard telephoned that I should send his
pistols at once to the Brown House. Naturally I thought the worst and really
was shaken.

At
1, the Bavarian government ordered the police to fire upon the SA should,
contrary to the orders of the Chancellor, they undertake any action against the
Bavarian government.Thereupon
Rhm [head of the SA] , Himmler [head of the SS] and Reinhard visited Prime
Minister Held and spent more than an hour negotiating with him. Rhm demanded
that the Bavarian Government itself should appoint Epp as Commissioner. They
promised to do so by 3:00. In fact, they only wanted to gain some time and
immediately got in touch with Berlin [inquiring if the Reich government would
protect the legal government of Bavaria].

Three
o'clock came, and still no answer. Rhm telephoned Hitler who promised a
telegram.General Epp would be
named Commissioner by the Federal Government. For some reason still
unexplained, this telegram never arrived. A second was sent. Reinhard himself
went to the telegraph office and in a half hour he had a memorable document in
his hand. He brought it to General Epp, and now came the time for decisive
action.

First
came the occupation of the Police Office [in Munich]. They traveled there in
four automobiles. The first black SA car carried Epp and Rhm. In the second
came Himmler and Reinhard. The others contained the armed escort. The sentries
[outside police headquarters] were taken by surprise and reacted meekly. Police
Chief Koch had already left the office. Reinhard says that it gave him great
pleasure to see the same people who only a half year ago had locked up and
beaten SA and SS men with rubber trenchons,now fleeing before these same SA and SS men.

Himmler
had been named Police Chief [of Bavaria], Seidl Ditmarsh Director of Police,
and Reinhard -- now don't laugh -- Commissioner of the Political Police. I
myself laughed uproariously at this. When Reinhard informed his predecessor,
˙Oberregierungsrat

Koch,
about the new appointment, the latter paled significantly. Reinhard however
will only clean out the dung from the police and then resign.There's so much shit here that he says
he would sink in it if he didn't get out soon. Next week he will go to Berlin
and take over his office there. Himmler too will leave soon.

So
that was the police action. At the same time the other public buildings were
occupied. Every thing ran perfectly, without a single shot being fired. The
occupation of the ˙

Munich
Post was most amusing. This is the newspaper of the Munich SPD.

Standartenfhrer˙
Hflich invaded the building with SA and SS men. The whole building was quiet
as the grave. Then they found that all 300 Reichsbanner people [the paramilitary
arm of the SPD] had gathered in a large room. They formed a nice picture: all
300 stood with their hands in the air. Hflich ordered: Hands down, left turn,
march, march. In the evening the SA and the SS had their own amusements. They
received the assignment to arrest all political enemies, insofar as they could
be identified, and bring them to the Brown House. Now that was some thing for
the youngsters! Finally they could take their revenge for all the injustice
which had been imposed upon them,for all the blows and wounds they had sustained, and especially revenge
for all their fallen comrades. Already more than 300 Communists, Socialists,
Jews and BVP [Catholic Party] are arrested. A few interesting incidents of this
action are known to me.Hflich
received instructions to arrest Interior Minister Stutzel with a few SS men. At
first, Stutzel was calm and took leave of his wife and child, but then he
refused to leave his bed and go with them. After he refused the third demand to
accompany them, the SS simply took him like he was and thrust him into the
automobile and off to the Brown House. You can imagine the fun. There stood the
Herr Minister of the Interior in his stockings and nightshirt, surrounded by SA
and SS men who could not help but laugh. Then they attached heavy chains to his
big toes and dragged off the crying Minister of the Interior between them,
hopping from one leg to another. You can just picture the scene!

Then
the Jew Lewy was brought in. With him they made short shrift. They gave his a
sound thrashing with dog whips [Hundepeitshcen], pulled off his shoes and
stockings, and then, accompanied by the SS, he was sent off bare-footed to his
home.His house had, in the
meantime, been thoroughly plundered and fumigated. Lewy was the leader of the
Munich Jews.

This
might give you some idea of what has gone on here. Many Jesuits and Jews have
fled. But none is dead, none even seriously wounded, but they have learned
fear, fear indeed I can assure you.

Similar
developments occurred all over Germany, but many were more bloody.

1933 Report from the SPD Branch in
Braunschweig

From
3 March the atmosphere in the town and the countryside became unbearable. One
brawl after another.... On 9 March at 11 a.m. a fight started between an SS
man, obviously sent out for the purpose of provocation, and a member of the
Reichsbanner. At about 12 noon a small police car appeared in front of the Volksfreund
[the SPD newspaper] office building with about ten policemen and the SS man who
was alleged to have been beaten up. They searched the Volksfreund for
the culprit ... but it was in vain.

|

At
4:05 p.m. three trucks with SA and SS drove up. The porter promptly closed the
doors, but the Nazis smashed the big display windows and pushed into the
building through the holes.They
opened fire inside the building with a number of rifles and revolvers. During
this, a 28-year-old salesman, Hans Saile, the manager of the

Advertising
Union of Berlin, was killed by a shot in the stomach....The intruders rushed up the stairs and
smashed in the locked doors with their rifle butts. Union secretaries,
employees, typists, Co-op salesgirls were all driven together with cudgels,
rifles, revolvers and daggers. Then, with the order "Hands up!", they
were locked up for hours, before being released with kicks and slaps.

Although
the [SPD] leadership had tried for weeks to remove all important and valuable
material and funds from the building, they had not succeeded in securing all
the money, books and documents in time. Several thousand Reichsmarks were
confiscated by the intruders on their own authority. The whole building was
searched for valuables.... A P, hidden behind a cupboard as the Nazis broke in,
heard the men grumbling that their booty of money and valuables had been far
too small.... During the course of the action, the private tenants of the Volksfreund
building were raided in their flats, abused, threatened with weapons and beaten
up.

The
regular police had meanwhile blocked off the surrounding streets with a strong
force. The Nazis looted the building in front of their very eyes. They
destroyed the furniture and equipment. Anything that was movable they dragged
into the yard. Documents, pieces of furniture, ... book supplies, account books
and flags were heaped on a pyre and set alight.The fire burned for three days and nights.

Immediately
after the raid on the building, Comrade Dr. Heinrich Jaspers, the former Prime
Minister of Brunswick, telephoned the Police Chief and informed him of what had
happened.He accused the lawyer
and Reichstag Representative, Alpers, leader of the SS in Brunswick, of armed
riot, unlawful assembly, housebreaking and disturbance of public order.

Police
Chief Lieff replied that these actions were completely legal. Representative
Alpers had been provided with a police warrant for this action.After this phone call, the regular
police units were withdrawn from the Volksfreund, so Alper's hordes had
a free hand. Jaspers was told he should file a written complaint in the usual
way.[The police] refused to intervene before the complaint had been filed.

There
was of course no redress. On the contrary, Alpers became Minister of Justice
[and a few weeks later. Dr. Jasper was soon arrested and sent to Dachau
concentration camp, where he later died of ill-treatment.]

The
bourgeois paper in Brunswick reported the occupation the following morning.
According to them it had been carried out quite legally, for the building had
been a center of unrest for a long time. Moreover, it was alleged that masses
of treasonable material and ammunition had been found.

These months saw an orgy of
violence against the Party's opponents, particularly those on the Left. This
violence, largely spontaneous and often aimed at settling old local scores,
rapidly began to get out of control. In retrospect, this reign of terror was
the unleashing of all the frustration of the SA and local Party organizations
from the strict legality policy of the pre-1933 period. The Party's rank and
file saw at last the possibility of taking revenge on their opponents and of
acquiring the prizes of power. As far as they were concerned, it was now their
state and they were not ready for compromise or half measures. Trade union
offices were smashed; Social Democrat officials were dragged off by SA men,
cruelly beaten up and stashed in hastily improvised concentration camps. In
many places, the SA also seized the opportunity to intimidate businessmen into
giving them employment in one form or another. A kind of protection racket
developed.

1933 Report of Wilhelm
Sollmann, SPD Member of the Reichstag,and former Minister of Labor

On
Thursday 9 March, shortly after three o'clock in the afternoon, three cars
filled with Storm Troopers and SS men pulled up at my house.At that moment I was speaking on the
telephone to a member of the Town Council, and I was able to tell him:"Nazis are forcing their way in,
give the Police Strike Force the alarm."

At
that moment a number of men armed with loaded revolvers, sticks and knives
forced their way into my study.Before I could say a word I was struck down at my desk.The men were in a kind of frenzy of
hate and joy at being able to take revenge on me.Most of the men went to the other rooms in the house and in
a few minutes literally smashed everything to splinters. ... I was hit again
and thrown into an open car.My
wife called out: "Where are you taking my husband?"One of them answered jeeringly:
"You'll soon know that!"

First
they drove me over the grass towards the wood.As there was a Storm Troop man sitting in front of me and
flourishing a revolver the whole time, I thought that they were going to shoot
me in the nearest woods.But they
drove on, abusing me all the time -- some of the abuse was quite insane -- and
then we crossed the bridge near Kalk.There they drove slowly, and all along the High Street, which was full
of people.I was exhibited to the
crowd: "This is the great Sollmann!See how small he is!"I was taken to the district headquarters of the National Socialists in
the Mozartstrasse. I was chased up the stairs with blows and kicks and lashes,
and then into the conference room.They had lowered the blinds so that the room was half in darkness.I was to be put before a tribunal.A large swastika banner was spread over
the table.I saw that my
colleague, Efferoth, was sitting near the window, in the same plight as myself.I had hardly taken a seat near him with
the tortures began, and they went on for two hours.

First
a man in SA uniform, whom my colleague said was Councillor Ebele, made a short
speech attacking Efferoth, saying that retribution was now to come.Then SS men began attacking us with
their fists.For about half an
hour, Efferoth and I lay on the floor, so exhausted that we could not get
up.All the time we were being hit
and kicked, and now and then our hair was pulled and our heads knocked
together.

Eventually
we were pulled up and forced into chairs; a man held our hands behind the
chair, while another forced us to open our teeth and poured a liter of
castor-oil down our throats.One
of our tormentors shouted for salts to increase our torture, but apparently
salts could not be got quickly enough.Then they gave us a short rest again.I begged for a glass of water.When it was given to me I saw its [urine] color and
therefore only used it to pour over my hands which were covered with blood. One
of the men shouted:"Why
don't you drink the water?"At the same moment he threw the glass with what was left of its contents
into my face.Then we were struck
and kicked again.

All
at once our tormentors seemed to get uneasy.I thought that the police must have been notified of our
being attacked and carried off. About 5 o'clock, the SS men took hold of us and
with a shout of "Into the coal cellar!" literally flung us down the
stairs. Apparently the coal cellar was locked, and they seemed to be in a hurry
to get rid of us.They therefore pushed
us across the street, with blows and kicks -- our faces were already a bloody
pulp -- to a car. We were made to squat on the floor.

The
ill-treatment was carried on in the closed car;one blow struck me in the right eye.We pulled up at police
headquarters.Although we were in
a state of collapse we were forced to run in and up the stairs.... One of the
Nazis said that next day we would have to walk in front of the Nazis'
torchlight procession and at the finish we would be thrown onto the heap of
torches....The Police Chief
advised us to let him place us under protective arrest.I referred to my parliamentary
immunity; he agreed with what I said, but nevertheless advised that Efferoth
and I should enter the prison hospital.

In
the hospital we were sewn up and bandaged.During the torturing, one of the SS men had slowly and
deliberately pressed a knife into Efferoth's side.The doctor stated that it would have been dangerous if it
had gone a centimeter deeper....Next day, the Press published a report that we had been attacked by
political opponents and suffered "slight injuries."

In his postwar memoirs,
Rudolf Diels,head of the
Political Division of the Prussian Police at the time, recalled the confusion
and violence which surrounded this outbreak of terror in the allegedly peaceful
national uprising:

Postwar Memoirs of Rudolf Diels

The
uprising of the Berlin SA electrified the remotest parts of the country. Around
many big cities in which the authority of the police had been transferred to
the local SA leaders, revolutionary activities took place beyond the periphery
of these cities throughout the whole area of their regiments and groups. The
higher the rank of these police-presidents, the farther afield extended the
noisy abuses of these parhelions of the revolution. In Lower Silesia, the SA
Gruppenfhrer [Edmund Heines] carried on a regime of violence from Breslau. In
the North Rhineland, SS Gruppenfhrer Weitzel, the newly appointed police chief
of Dsseldorf, displayed violent radicalism together with the SA leader Lobek;
in Essen and the cities of the Ruhr area, the SA of [Gauleiter] Terboven held
sway.

In
East Prussia, Gauleiter Koch had allowed neither the SA nor the SS to come to
power.Here the political leaders
ruled. They were opposed to the 'reactionary' elements. The country was in a
sort of state of war in which the aristocracy, as the imagined enemy, had to
put up with a flood of arrest. From Stettin, the example of the SS
Standartenfhrer, Engel, encouraged the Pomeranian SA to terrorize the country.
From the cities of Rostock, Stargard and Greifswald, cases of beatings up were
reported in which Communists and Social Democrats had been subjected to mock
drownings and hangings. The torments had cost some victims their lives. In
Silesia, the Rhineland, Westphalia and the Ruhr area, unauthorized arrests,
insubordination to the police, forcible entry into public buildings,
disturbance of the work of the authorities, the smashing up of dwellings and
nightly raids had begun before the Reichstag fire at the end of February....

It
was no longer possible to tell which public or private spheres had been
penetrated by the SA, and scarcely possible to guess the purposes for which it
allowed itself to be hired and employed.There was hardly a single business undertaking which had not employed an
'old fighter' of the SA for protection against the danger of
"coordination," denunciation and threats. They were present
everywhere as self-appointed directors, special commissars and SA delegates....

No
[Party or State] order and no instruction exists for the establishment of the
concentration camps; they were not established; one day they were simply
there.The SA leaders put up
"their'" camps because they did not trust the police with their
prisoners or because the prisons were over crowded. No information about many
of these ad hoc camps ever got as far as Berlin. Years after my departure from
Berlin I heard of the existence of some camps of which I had no knowledge in
1933.We first heard of a camp in
Kemma in the Ruhr area through the foreign press. It was the American
journalist Lochner who informed the state police office that the [SA] group
leader Heines had established a concentration camp near Durrgoy in
Silesia.

And when Diels, as head of
the Prussian Political Police attempted to investigate what was going on, he
often met with open opposition.

At
the beginning of October we heard that in Esterwegen and Papenburg prisoners
had been shot while escaping.... I was refused access to the Esterwegen camp by
the SS.I had announced my visit
to the camp a week before.But
Gring's order, which I had to show, had not impressed the SS. When I appeared
at the entrance of the camp, as far as they were concerned I was a civilian
without position or rank in their mighty organization. Only when Weitzel, the
SS group leader in Dsseldorf, had given the commandant permission by telephone
was I allowed to enter the camp.

The
Papenburg camp granted me admission. But what can an 'inspection' of such an
institution reveal? The prisoners' replies to the questions put by the
inspector are determined by the fear of displeasing their tormentors in whose
power the prisoners remain. The food is always adequate and the shining
cleanliness of floors and barracks and the scrupulous tidiness of the beds do
not tell that they are a means of tormenting the inmates. Nobody can see in the
ridiculous straightness of the freshly raked expanses of sand that a violation
of such orderliness means 'bunker' and corporal punishment. In Papenburg the
unusual happened; a few of the prisoners' spokesmen 'let themselves go'. They
not only complained of the food, but they made it clear that they had been
subjected to ill-treatment.

In
Papenburg, the mayor too had told me of the excesses of the SS toward the
population. SS men roamed through the district pillaging like the Swedes in the
Thirty Years War. They "confiscated" arrested people who had incurred
their displeasure and started brawls with the youths of the surrounding villages.
My visit had also encouraged the [Governor of] Osnabrck to inform me of the
misdeeds by the SS in the camp.

Then,
just at the right time, came a serious complaint by a Cologne lawyer, Dr.
Punder, made to the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, on behalf of his
brother, State Secretary Punder, who was in the hands of SS thugs in Papenburg.
Frick had Punder's complaint passed on to me and [Minister of Justice] Grtner
by Oberregierungsrat Erbe. Erbe promised me his support and Hanfstaengl
promised to work on Hitler. At the same time, Chief Prosecutor Halm of
Osnabrck had reported that his attempted investigations into the camps because
of the ill-treatment of the innkeeper, Hillig, by SS men in Papenburg, had been
refused with severe threats. Bypassing SS and Police Chief Daluege, I went with
Joel, the public prosecutor, to Gring's representative, State Secretary
Grauert. He gave us fifty Berlin police officers armed with carbines with whom
Joel set off for Papenburg.

A
delegate sent ahead by Joel was told that if the police approached the camp
they would be received with machine guns. When Joel attempted to get into the
camp, bullets flew round his ears. On his informing Grauert of this state of
affairs, he was told to wait for further instructions. Meanwhile, Himmler had
protested to Gring about the use of the police against the SS. Gring would
have given in, had Joel not informed him that the SS were fraternizing with the
prisoners in the camp and were going to arm them. This brought a new element into
the revolutionary situation. Mention of the mutinous SS put all other arguments
in the shade. Gring asked me to report to Hitler in his presence on what had
happened. Hitler ordered the "take-over" of the camps by the police.
When I informed Grauert, he sent 200 Osnabrck police off to the Dutch border.
But they had to make ready to lay siege, as it were, to the camps, especially
when a representative of SS Group Leader Weitzel appeared on the scene and
tried to intimidate the police officers with threats from Himmler. I now went
to ask Hitler straight out whether the police could use force of arms against
the SS.Hitler let me see him and
after my renewed account of the excesses in the camps, he interrupted me in a
military voice of command and ordered me to ask the Reich Defense Minister for
army artillery, and to shoot up the camps, the SS and their prisoners without
mercy. My colleagues were horrified when I arrived with this order from the
Fhrer. It was clear to me that I should not take it seriously.

I
asked my superior, Ministerialdirektor Fischer in the Ministry of the Interior,
to negotiate with the mutinous SS about their "demands" which, like
freebooters, they had made the condition of their departure. They had demanded
coats, blankets, and back pay. After he had informed the SS,through one of Weizel's SS leaders,
about the fulfillment of their demands, Joel took possession of the camps
without bloodshed. He then spent some time in Papenburg to begin investigations
into the violence of the SS guards....

At
this time Joel also went to Kemma near Wuppertal at Grauert's and my
instigation. The SA had tortured the Communists there in a particularly
"original" way. They were forced to drink salty herring solution and
then left to pant in vain for a sip of water throughout the hot summer days.
One of my officers who had accompanied Joel reported that the SA there had also
played the "joke" of getting their prisoners to climb trees; they had
to hang on in the tree tops for hours on end and at certain intervals cry
"cuckoo."Public
Prosecutor Winckler in Wuppertal, who proposed to act against the SA, had to
flee with his wife and child from their threats. The Regierungspresident
Schmidt in Dsseldorf poured out his heart to me about the atrocities. With
Joel, I succeeded in getting Gring to have the "responsible" SA
Group Leader relieved of his office, to ensure that Joel had a free hand in the
prosecution of the SA guards.After a few months, Joel succeeded, despite the opposition of Gauleiter
Florian, in starting proceedings against the guilty SA men. But in the struggle
with Hitler, who finally terminated the proceedings, he was bound to lose....

In
reality, there were neither commands nor prohibitions [issued from Berlin for
SA or SS men.]Before and after my
reports to Gring and Hitler on acts of violence in the country, SA and SS
leaders would talk openly about the bravery of their men on the field of the
revolution. These acts were apparently approved of and laughed over even as
they were disapproved of when I represented them as excesses against the
authority of the new state ....Already, the SA were breaking into police prisons, to get hold of the
Communist leaders who had been arrested after the Reichstag fire, and who, they
intended, should be the victims of their special revenge. From police
headquarters they even took files which could incriminate their own leaders;
the frightened police officials handed over whatever they were asked for.

The impact of this
intimidation was both profound and wide-reaching.

9 March 1933 H.J. to SPD Headquarters

In
accordance with Paragraph 9 of the statutes, I hereby signify my resignation
and that of my wife with immediate effect....

As
a civil servant I have to make a choice. On the one hand, I see how the
tendency is growing on the part of my employer, the Reich, not to tolerate
those employees belonging to anti-Government associations. On the other hand,
there is my loyalty to the Party. Unfortunately, I see no other solution but my
resignation. The existence of my family is at stake. If the fate of
unemployment, which in my experience can be very, very hard, is unavoidable, I
need not reproach myself for not having done everything in the interest of my
wife and child.

The Enabling Law

Enabling
Laws were not an entirely new concept in German politics. They had been
frequently introduced during the early days of the Weimar Republic;he most famous were those of 13 October
and 8 December 1923 which dealt with the crisis caused by the inflation and the
Ruhr invasion.˙

Now
after the election failed to give him the 2/3Ġs majority needed to change the
power of the Reichstag, Hitler reluctantly took up PapenĠs suggestion to have
the parliament pass an Enabling law.In addition to his political/constitutional dilemma,
Hitler faced the difficult job of legalizing the powers his SA and SS had
already won for him on the streets of hundreds of towns and cities. . Although
the NSDAP and his ally the DNVP enjoyed a slight majority in the Reichstag (51%),
Hitler did not want to have anything to do with parliamentary rule.He was assisted in his search for an
alternative form of government by the leaders of the various political parties
who seemed to fall over one another in offering to cooperate.˙

7 March 1933 Minutes of the Cabinet Meeting
˙

The
Reich Chancellor opened the meeting and stated that ... he regarded the events
of 5 March as a revolution. Ultimately Marxism would no longer exist in
Germany. What was needed was an Enabling Law passed by a two-thirds majority.

He, the Reich Chancellor, was firmly
convinced that the Reichstag would pass such a law. The deputies of the German
Communist Party would not appear at the opening of the Reichstag, because they
were in jail....

The
Vice-Chancellor and Reich Commissioner of Prussia [Papen] expressed to the
Reich Chancellor and the National Socialist Organization the thanks of the
Reich Cabinet for their admirable performance in the election.... With regard
to the internal political situation the Vice-Chancellor stated that yesterday
(6 March) Msgr. Kaas [Head of the Catholic Center Party] had been to see
him.He had stated that he had
come without previously consulting his party and was now prepared to let
by-gones be by-gones. He had, moreover, offered the cooperation of the Center
Party....

Reich
Minister Gring stated that the Communist deputies would not take part in the
sessions of the Reichstag because they were in jail. Serious charges were also
to be made against a number of Marxist deputies. Forty persons of the Iron
Front had carried out united action with the German Communist Party. He was
firmly convinced that a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag would be obtained
for an Enabling Law.Deputies who
left the session in order to make it impossible for the two-thirds quorum to be
present would have to forfeit their free travel passes and allowances for the
duration of the legislative period. He wished to make a change in the rules to
this effect. In his opinion, the duty of elected Representatives to exercise
his mandate also entailed that he must not absent himself from sessions without
being excused.

Grass,
the chairman of the parliamentary group of the Prussian Center Party, had been
to see him even before the election. Grass had made the offer that if no
further changes in personnel were made before the election, then the Center
Party would be prepared to cooperate.According to the statements made by Grass, the collaboration of the
German Nationalists could then be dispensed with. It was best to tell the
Center Party that all its civil servants would be removed from office if the
Center Party did not agree to the Enabling Law. For the rest, the tactics to be
employed towards the Center Party would have to consist in courteously ignoring
it....

Meanwhile, many in the
Federal Government were growing increasingly concerned about the excesses of
the SA revolution,over which
neither they, nor the Nazi hierarchy, appeared to have any control. Hitler too seemed
torn between loyalty to his followers, with whose actions against their
opponents he apparently sympathized, and his need to placate his conservative
allies and in particular President Hindenburg (who could dismiss him at any
time). . Only days after the election, he delivered an unusual speech,
stressing the need to end the violence.

10 March 1933 Declaration by Adolf Hitler

Comrades,
SA and SS men! A revolution has taken place in Germany. It is the result of
hard struggles, the greatest tenacity, but also the tightest discipline.
Unscrupulous characters, mainly Communist spies, are trying to compromise the
Party by individual actions which have no relation to the great work of the
national uprising, but could discredit and detract from the achievements of our
movement. In particular, they try to bring the Party or Germany into conflict
with foreign countries by molesting foreigners and cars with foreign flags. SA
and SS men, you yourselves must immediately stop such creatures and take them
to task. Furthermore, you must hand them over to the police. whoever they may
be.

From
this day onwards the National Government has executive power throughout
Germany. The further progress of the national uprising will therefore be guided
and planned from the top. Only where these orders are resisted, or where
individuals or marching columns are ambushed, must this resistance be crushed,
as before, thoroughly and immediately. The molesting of individuals, the
obstruction or disturbance of business life, must cease on principle. You, Comrades,
must see to it that the national revolution of 1933 cannot be comó pared in
history with the revolution of the knapsack Spartakists in 1918. Apart from
this, do not be deterred for a second from our watchword. It is: The
extermination of Marxism.

The effect of this
declaration may have been largely offset by a speech in Essen by Gring on the
same day, in which he stated: "For years past we have told the people:
'You can settle accounts with the traitors.' We stand by our word. Accounts are
being settled." But Hitler reiterated his appeal in a broadcast on 12
March, which appears to have had some effect.

At
the Federal level, discussions were still proceeding on how to secure an
Enabling Bill.Once again,
Minister of the Interior Frick seemed clearly to be pursuing his own
empire-building.˙

15 March 1933 Cabinet Minutes

The
Reich Chancellor opened the session and stated that the political situation was
completely clarified now that the elections of the municipal councils had taken
place. The clarification of the relations between the Reich and the south
German states was of decisive importance, especially that of the relationship
between the Reich and Bavaria. The Reich idea (Reichsgedanke) had shown itself
surprisingly strong everywhere. The revolution in Bavaria was perhaps the most
thorough one. In his opinion, further internal political developments would
progress without disturbance. In Wrttemberg a government had already been
formed. In Bavaria it was still necessary to clarify certain separatist
activities. For this reason it would, in his opinion, be practical to wait a
while with the formation of a government in Bavaria. The national revolution
had taken place without great upheavals. He stated that henceforth, it would be
necessary to detour all activities of the people towards the purely political,
because economic decisions had to be awaited. In his opinion there would be no
difficulties in getting the Enabling Act through the Reichstag with a
two-thirds majority.

The
foreign political situation had in no way become worse. He was firmly convinced
that foreign countries would take a totally different attitude towards the
present Reich government than to the former ones, that is, they would treat it
with greater respect. The situation in Austria could not yet be surveyed
clearly. As long as the political center of gravity was in Vienna, France would
always be able to assert a strong influence.

The
Reich Minister of the Interior [Frick] gave the information that he had
attended the session of the Reichstag Committee of Senior Members. The five
Reichstag parties still existing were all represented.... He had pointed out
that the Reichstag ought to pass within three days an Enabling Act with the
majority necessary to change the Constitution. The Center Party had not
expressed any objection. Representative Esser had, however, asked to be
received by the Reich Chancellor.

There
still remained the question of what should happen to the drafts of bills which
ought to be supported by the present administration, and formerly had already
been presented to the Reichstag. In his opinion it was best, in anticipation of
the Enabling Act, not to present the list to the Reich Council and the
Reichstag, but to pass the list later on the basis of the Enabling Act. The
Enabling Act would have to be so broadly framed that every provision of the
German constitution could be side-tracked. It would have to have a time limit
of four years for the time being. He, the Reich Minister of the Interior, had in
mind something like the following text for the law:

÷The
Reich administration shall be enabled to take such measures as it deems
necessary in view of the needs of the people and the State. In doing so the
provisions of the Reich constitution can be waived.

It
was still to be determined if an addition to the content would be practical,
according to which the validity of the Enabling Act would depend on the present
composition of the Reich government.

As
regards the two-third majorities demanded by the Reich constitution, altogether
432 representatives would have to be present to pass the Enabling Act, with the
Communists included and the number of elected Reichstag representatives assumed
to be 647. If the Communist representatives are deducted, all representatives would have to be
present in order to pass the Enabling Act. He believed it better not to
eliminate the Communist mandates.On the other hand, prohibition of the Communist Party would be
practical. The prohibition would result in dissolution of the
organizations.Eventually allpersons who still insist on professing
Communism would have to be sent to labor camps.

Reich
Minister Gring expressed his conviction that the Enabling Act would be passed
with the necessary two-thirds majority. Possibly that majority could be
obtained by banishing several Social Democrats from the hall. Possibly, the
Social Democrats would even refrain from voting on the Enabling Act. At the
election of the President of the Reichstag, the Social Democrats would
certainly hand in blank slips [rather than vote for Gring].

The
original draft of the Enabling Law followed previous Weimar laws and permitted
the issuing of Government decrees with the force of law without the need for
prior Reichstag approval from the Reichstag The wording of this draft came
primarily from Vice-Chancellor's Papen's office. At some point between 15 and
20 March, however, the draft was changed to empower the Reich Cabinet to issue
not merely "decrees" but also "laws," even laws which deviated
from the Constitution and thus required a two-thirds Reichstag majority. The
legal distinction between a "law" and a "decree" was always
a little vague,but the Weimar
Constitution specified that certain legislation including authorization to borrow
money and to implement the budget had to be "laws," i.e. required a
2/3's majority in the Reichstag.All previous Enabling Bills had only concerned "decrees."

This
Enabling Bill, therefore, was a momentous move, but surprisingly, many of the
non-Nazis in the Cabinet did not think the bill went far enough.

20 March 1933Cabinet Minutes

The
Reich Chancellor reported on the interview which he had just had with
representatives of the Center Party. He explained that in this interview he had
established the necessity for the Enabling Act and that the representatives of
the Center Party had recognized this necessity.The representatives of the Center Part had only asked that a
small committee be formed which was to be continuously informed about the measures
which the Reich Government would take on the basis of the Enabling Act. In his
opinion this request should be granted; then there would be no doubt that the
Center Party would agree to the Enabling Act. The acceptance of the Enabling
Act by the Center Party would mean a strengthening of prestige abroad. On
Wednesday the discussion of individual concrete questions with representatives
of the Center Party was to be continued.

The
Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs [Neurath] suggested that written notes be
made of the settlements arrived at with the representatives of the Center
Party.

The
Reich Minister of the Interior [Frick] then presented the contents of a
"Bill to Relieve the Distress of the People and of the Reich."He said that in his opinion it would be
most practical to introduce the bill as an initial motion in the Reichstag. It
would be best if the Party Leaders should sign it. A change in the
parliamentary procedure of the Reichstag was also considered necessary. A
specific ruling would have to be made that even those Reichstag members who
were absent without being excused would be counted as present. Presumably it
would be possible to pass the Enabling Act in all of its three readings on
Thursday.

The
Vice-Chancellor and Reich Commissioner for Prussia [Papen] stated that a new
constitution would have to be formulated, which would above all be free of
exaggerated parliamentarianism.Perhaps the Reich Chancellor in his government statement would be able
to make some statements to this effect.

The
Reich Chancellor said that he had already made clear to the representatives of
the Center Party that the Reichstag could become a national assembly when the
advance work for the outline of a new Reich constitution should be ready [i.e.
it could be the new constitutional convention].

The
Reich Minister of Economics and Reich Minister for Nutrition and Agriculture
[Hugenberg] stated that the proposed Enabling Act could perhaps have a passage
inserted, specifically declaring the Reichstag to be a national assembly.Reich Minister Gring declared
that he had made an intensive study of this question. He considered it more
practical, however, that such a form should not be chosen.

The
Reich Cabinet approved the drafting of a "Law to Relieve the Distress of
the People and the Nation."

To
set the stage for the Enabling Bill, Hitler summoned the new Reichstag to meet
at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, where Frederick the Great and all the Kings
of Prussia were buried. In a bizarre ceremony, replete with religion and
national patriotism, Hitler pledged his government to unite the German nation
by building upon the traditions of the past. Even hostile anti-Nazis were
impressed.

Erich Ebermeyer, whose
skepticism we have already seen, described in his diary the Potsdam scene and
its impact on himself and his liberal and unsympathetic family˙

And
they only listened to it on the radio.

21 March 1933Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

The
"Day of Potsdam." A sea of flags in all the streets. We too couldn't
opt out. So I get the old black-white-red flag from the World War down from the
attic and hoist it. The black-red-gold one [of the Republic], the good old
disgraced, betrayed, and never properly respected thing has to go up to the
attic in its place...

In
the morning a broadcast of the ceremonies in Potsdam. All cleverly done,
impressive, spell-binding even, at any rate for the masses. But we too cannot
and must not shut our eyes in the face of what is going on. Today and here, the
marriage took place, if not for ever then at least for a time, between the
masses led by Hitler and the "Spirit of Potsdam," Prussian values,
represented by Hindenburg.

How
marvelously it's been staged by that master producer Goebbels. The procession
of Hindenburg, the Government, and the deputies goes from Berlin to Potsdam
past a solid line of cheering millions. The whole of Berlin seems to be on the
streets. Government and deputies walk from St Nicholas' Church to the Garrison
Church together. The radio announcer almost weeps with emotion.

Then
Hindenburg reads his speech. Plain, strong, coming from a simple heart and so
presumably speaking to simple hearts. The very fact that there stands a man,
who unites in himself generations of German history, who fought in 1866, who
was there at the Imperial Coronation in 1871 in Versailles, who became a
national hero between 1914 and 1918 from whom no lost battle and no lost world
war can reduce his popularity among our peculiar people, whom on the contrary
the defeat itself raised to a mythical state of glorification, who then as an
old man once more took over the leadership of the Reich and even did so for a
second time, and not out of vanity or a hunger for power but undoubtedly from a
Prussian sense of duty and now, soon to die, presides over the marriage of his
world with the new rising one which the Austrian corporal Hitler, represents.

Then
Hitler speaks. It cannot be denied; he has grown in stature. Out of the demagogue
and party leader, the fanatic and agitator -- surprisingly enough even for his
opponents -- a true statesman seems to be developing. So is he a genius in
whose enigmatic soul lie unsuspected and unprecedented possibilities? The
Government's declaration is marked by notable moderation. Not a word of hatred
for the opposition, not a word of racial ideology, no threat aimed at home or
abroad. Hitler says only what they want: the maintenance of the great
traditions of our nation, firmness of government instead of eternal wavering,
consideration for all the experiences of individual and human life which have
proved useful for the welfare of mankind over thousands of years.

Hindenburg
lays wreaths on the graves of the Prussian kings. The old Field Marshal shakes
hands with the World War corporal. The corporal makes a deep bow over the hand
of the Field Marshal. Cannons thunder over Potsdam, over Germany.

No-one
can escape the emotion of the moment. Father too is deeply impressed. Mother
has tears in her eyes... In the evening, a quiet hour with M.He is completely unmoved by the day's
events as if he were surrounded by a thick protective skin. He considers the
whole thing simply a put-up job, doesn't waver for one moment from his
instinctive dislike. "You've got it coming to you," says the 21 year
old.I remain silent,ashamed and torn.

If the Potsdam Ceremony
affected even the liberal educated classes, it reassured many Germans who still
longed for the glories of the past.

21 March 1933 Anonymous Diary Entry

Am
I in possession of my mind, am I still myself?What is this Hitler doing to me, to all Germany?We have just returned from the
illuminated streets of our city and behind us we have left a jubilant and happy
crowd celebrating that German unity about which I wrote so often in my diary
and which has been reached now after a thousand years of desperate
struggle.

It
is like a dream. Class barriers seem to be bridged over. The whole day has been
full of a wonderful nation-wide musical program. This Hitler seems to be a
fanatic lover of music and arts. And I seriously believe now that we have done
an injustice to this man. Certainly, he will not put into effect all the ideas
of his book, Mein Kampf.He
will also admit the constructive criticism of both the old conservatives and of
big business, and even the regrettable laws against our Jewish population will
be confined to a few cases. All Jewish World-War veterans and all the older
people, as well as Jewish businessmen, will be able to continue their work.
Hitler solemnly promised all this to our venerable hero, President von
Hindenburg, this afternoon, in the wonderful act of rededication in Potsdam,
where the new and the old Germany joined for the great work of a free, happy,
and peaceful future.

If
there are minor shadows on the clear and wonderful picture, we have to accept
them. If Hitler had done nothing else but unite all Germans, he would go down
in history as a hero. I even apologized to Marie [his pro-Nazi wife], who is so
happy.

Our
workers who had to be discharged two years ago are back in the factory.
Although we have no particular work for them at the present time, the
management has taken them back under the overwhelming pressure of nationwide
patriotism, definitely hoping that we shall find constructive work in no time
at all. The eyes of these follows were bright. They were not resentful at all,
as they told me tragic stories about their unemployment during the past years.

Sometimes,
I confess, I still have the feeling that all this excitement and glamour is not
genuine, that this is a house of cards which any storm may blow down.
Everything has come too suddenly. But Marie implores me to refrain from
pessimism in such wonderful moments of national strength and unity. Hitler has
offered his generous pardon to all his political enemies -- except the Jews --
and he says that no hatred but brotherly love only will govern the fate of
future Germany.

In
order to get his Enabling Bill through the Reichstag, Hitler required the votes
of either the SPD, the Socialist Party, or the Center, the Catholic Party. The
Catholic Church authorities, however, were still hostile to the Nazi Party and
their influence with the Center Party was considerable. On 19 March, Cardinal
Bertram, the senior German Catholic bishop, issued a confidential statement to
the Catholic bishops that "as a result of biased announcements to the
effect that the Church will revise its attitude to the National Socialists,
Vice-Chancellor von Papen brought up this question during his visit yesterday.
I replied that it is for the leader of the National Socialists to revise his
attitude."

But
Hitler could hold out both a carrot and a stick to the Church. The carrot was
the idea of a Concordat a formal treaty between Germany and the Vatican
recognizing the rights and property of the Church in Germany. The Vatican had
been trying to get such a treaty for years, but had encountered the determined
opposition of the SPD. To win over the Catholics and the Center Party, Hitler
used his Reichstag speech on 23 March to promise respect for the rights of the
Catholic Church and stressed his Government's recognition of the importance of
religion:

23
March 1933 Hitler Reichstag Speech

By
its determination to carry through the political and moral purging of our
public life, the Government is creating and ensuring the preconditions for a
truly deep and inward religious life. The political advantages derivable from
compromises with atheistic organizations come nowhere near outweighing the
consequences to be seen in the destruction of our common religious and moral
values. The National Government sees in both Christian denominations the most
important factors for the maintenance of our society. It will respect the
agreements concluded between them and the states; their rights will not be
touched. It expects, however, that our task of a national and moral renewal of
our people will meet with similar appreciation from their side. The Government
will treat all Denominations with objective justice. It can never, however,
condone the idea that membership of a given denomination or race can be
regarded as absolving any person from common legal obligations or as a license
to commit or tolerate crimes without punishment. The National Government will
permit and guarantee to the Christian denominations the enjoyment of their due
influence in schools and education.Its concern will be for the sincere cooperation of Church and State. The
struggle against a materialist ideology and for the establishment of a real
national community is in the interests of the German nation as much as of our
Christian faith....

The stick which Hitler
could brandish was intimidation of Catholic civil servants. The following
document, written shortly after the event, catches the dilemma facing the
Center Party deputies who met to discuss how to vote on the Enabling Bill. The
distinguished historian of the Center Party, Karl Bachem, summed up their
uncertainty over the Bill. It is an admirable summation of the impossible
situation in which Catholic politicians found themselves as they caucused to
decide on whether or not they would support the Enabling Law.

March 1933 Karl Bachem Private Memorandum

Was
this vote right? This may be doubted, though only future developments will make
a definite judgment possible. It was certainly in the spirit of the call for
unity which Kaas had sent out weeks ago on 17 October 1932 in Mnster. It may
also be said that the law would have been passed even if the Center had voted
against it or abstained. If the Center had voted against it, it would, given
the current mood of the National Socialists, probably have been smashed at once
just like the Social Democratic Party and the Italian ˙Partito Popolare˙ [the
Catholic party dissolved by Mussolini a few years before.]. All civil servants
belonging to the Center would probably have been dismissed. There would have
been a great fracas in the Reichstag, and the Centrists would have made an
heroic exit, but with no benefit to the Catholic cause or to the cause of the
Center Party. The links between the Center and National Socialism would have
been completely cut, all collaboration with National Socialists and every
possibility of influencing their policy would have been out of the question.
Perhaps, then, it was right to make the attempt to come to an understanding and
cooperate with the National Socialists, in order to be able to participate in a
practical way in reshaping of the future.

Certainly
all this can be said. But what if this attempt fails? What if the National
Socialist wave, true to its basic ideological beliefs, wants to engulf our
Catholic organizations, our Catholic youth clubs etc., as in Italy? Will not
people then say that it was the fault of the Center for giving the Hitler
Government a blank check for four years? Will not the Center be so discredited
with its followers that it will lose all influence on them and be unable to
achieve any thing?

Then
again, can it be morally and politically justifiable to grant the Government,
whose instincts are so completely different from those principles we stand for,
such far-reaching, unique authority? The Center has always been the party of
the law, of the Constitution, and also of freedom. What has now happened has
nothing to do with law, freedom, and the Constitution. It is true that
parliamentarianism and with it the democratic idea have come to a dead end.
[Former Chancellor] Brning tried up to the last minute to save
parliamentarianism as part of the Constitution; but in vain. It is Hugenberg's
fault. But it has really proved impossible. So was it justified to try a new
way? Certainly, Hitler has inserted several points in his speech which meet our
wishes, to a far greater extent than would have been thought possible, and give
us a certain security. But will he be able to stick to this line since many of
his colleagues-- Rosenburg,
Hugenberg, Gring -- are strongly opposed to Catholicism?

In
any case: as in 1919 when we climbed calmly and deliberately into the Social
Democrat boat, so, in the same way, we enter the boat of the National
Socialists in 1933 and try to lend a hand with the steering. Between 1919 and
1933, this arrangement proved quite satisfactory: the Social Democrats, since
they were not able to govern without the Center, were unable to do anything
particularly anti-religious or dubiously socialistic. Will it be possible to
exercise a similarly sobering influence on the National Socialists now?Quod Deus bene vertat˙ [May God turn it
to the good]

It would indeed be a great thing, and if
it turns out like that, everyone in our party will praise the present attitude
of the parliamentary group. Just as after 1919, when the association with the
Social Democrats saved us from Bolshevism. It is enough if cooperation with the
National Socialists can protect us against Communists, Bolshevism and anarchy!
The latter is very important now. One may say ˙ Prius vivere, deinde
philosophari˙ [first live, then philosophize.

First
remove the danger of Communism, then everything will sort itself out. In short:
in this question too there is no obvious solution. As so often in politics. And
in life too! The risk is great, but if one had not run it the danger would have
been even greater. For the time being we go along with the new direction of the
Center. Whether it is right nobody can say yet. ˙"Qui vivra, verra˙
[Whoever lives,will see].

All
splits are dangerous now. As they were before.

With the Center Party in
agreement to support the Bill to disperse with the Reichstag, the issue was
never in doubt.In the dramatic
Reichstag debate, the only speech opposing the Enabling Decree came from Otto
Wels, the veteran SPD leader. The scene has been particularly well captured in
the recollections of an SPD Reichstag Member.

Postwar Memoirs of Wilhelm Hoegner

The
wide square in front of the Kroll Opera House was crowded with dark masses of
people. We were received with wild choruses: "We want the Enabling
Act!" Youths with swastikas on their chests eyed us insolently, blocked
our way, in fact made us run the gauntlet, calling us names like "Center
pig", "Marxist sow". The Kroll Opera House was crawling with
armed SA and SS men. In the cloakroom we learned that [former SPD Minister of
the Interior] Severing had been arrested on entering the building. The assembly
hall was decorated with swastikas and similar ornaments. The diplomats' boxes
and the rows of seats for the audience were overcrowded.When we Social Democrats had taken our
seats on the extreme left, SA and SS men lined up at the exits and along the
walls behind us in a semicircle. Their expressions boded no good.

Hitler
read out his government declaration in a surprisingly calm voice. Only in a few
places did he raise it to a fanatical frenzy: when he demanded the public
execution of van der Lubbe and when, at the end of his speech, he uttered dark
threats of what would happen if the Reichstag did not vote the Enabling Act he
was demanding. I had not seen him for a long time. He did not resemble the
ideal of the Germanic hero in any way. Instead of fair curls, a black strand of
hair hung down over his sallow face. His voice gushed out of his throat in dark
gurgling sounds. I have never understood how this speaker could carry away thousands
of people with enthusiasm.

After
the government declaration, there was a recess. The former Reich Chancellor,
Dr. Wirth, [of the Center Party] came over and said bitterly that in his group
the only question had been whether they should also give Hitler the rope to
hang them with. The majority of the Center was willing to obey Msgr. Dr. Kaas
and let Hitler have his Enabling Act. If they refused, they feared the outbreak
of a Nazi revolution and bloody anarchy. Only a few, among them Dr. Brning,
were against any concession to Hitler.

Otto
Wels read out our reply to the government declaration. It was a masterpiece in
form and content, a farewell to the fading epoch of human rights and
humanity:ÒNo blessing will come
out of a peace of violence, particularly at home. It is not possible to found a
real Volk community upon violence. The first condition must be equal rights!
The Government may, of course, protect itself against flagrant excesses of
controversy and it may prevent through serious measures both the appeals to
violence and violence itself. But this may be done only if it is done uniformly
and impartially in all directions, and if defeated opponents are not treated as
if they were outlaws. Freedom and life can be taken from us, but not
honor....

At
this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the
principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism. No Enabling
Decree can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and
indestructible. ... The Anti-Socialist Laws [of 1878] did not succeed in
destroying Social Democracy. From this new persecution, too, German Social
Democracy can draw new strength. We send greetings to the persecuted and the
oppressed. We greet our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty
deserve admiration. The courage with which they maintain their conviction and
their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future."

Otto
Wel's conclusion, spoken with a voice half- choking, recognized all those
innocents ... who were already filling the prisons and concentration camps
simply on account of their political creed. The speech made a terrifying
impression on all of us. Only a few hours before, we had heard that members of
the SA had taken away a 45 year-old welfare worker in Kpenick, carrying her to
a National Socialist barracks, stripped her completely, bound her on a table
and flogged her body with leather whips. The female members of [Reichstag
Representatives] were in tears, some sobbed uncontrollably.

But
Hitler jumped up furiously and launched into a passionate reply. When the
Social Democrats were in power, the National Socialists had been outlawed.
Anyone who bowed down before an International should not criticize the National
Socialists. If the National Socialists had no sense of justice, the Social
Democrats would not be here in the hall today.But the National Socialists had resisted the temptation to
turn against those who had tormented them for fourteen years. "You are
overly sensitive, gentlemen, if you talk of persecution already. By God, we
National Socialists alone would have had the courage to deal with Social
Democrats in a different way.... You, gentlemen, are no longer needed. I do not
want you to vote for the Enabling Act. Germany shall become free, but not
through you."

There
was no truth in the assertion that the National Socialists had been persecuted
in the German Republic. On the contrary, the movement had frequently been
furthered by the State authorities. Only when its members broke the existing
laws were they punished, in most cases very mildly. The Communists were made to
feel the strong arm of the law in a very different way. We tried to dam the
flood of Hitler's unjust accusations with interruptions of "No!",
"An error!", "False!" But that did us no good. The SA and
SS people, who surrounded us in a semicircle along the walls of the hall,
hissed loudly and murmured: "Shut up!", "Traitors!",
"You'll be strung up today."

25 March 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

Yesterday
an important day for the Reichstag. Indeed, it is the last important day for
the German Reichstag for a long time to come. For all intents and purposes, it
no longer exists.... By a vote of 441 to 90, the Enabling Decree is passed by
the Reichstag. By this new law, the present administration has seized absolute
and total power in the country. They can be no doubt of that, and Hitler leaves
no one in doubt about it. His government now no longer needs the Reichstag in
order to pass any kind of law, indeed no longer needs even a Reichstag opinion.
Or as Hitler cynically expressed it, his administration will "from time to
time inform the Reichstag of its policies...." The Nazis are now the
masters of the German Reich.

24 March 1933 Enabling
Decree, or Law for the Relief of the Distress of the People and Nation

The
Reichstag has resolved upon the following law which is herewith promulgated
with the approval of the Reichstag, having been established that all the
requirements for changing the constitution have been complied with.

Article
1

Laws
for the Reich can be resolved upon also by the Reich Cabinet, in addition to
the procedure provided by the Constitution of the Reich....

Article
2˙

Laws
for the Reich resolved upon by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Reich Constitution,
provided that they do not interfere with the institution of the Reichstag or
the Reich Presidency, whose powers will remain intact.

Article
3

Laws resolved upon by the Reich- Cabinet
are issued by the Reich Chancellor and promuló gated in the Reichsgesetzblatt.
They will become effective, so far as they do not determine otherwise, on the
day following their promulgation....

Article
4˙

Treaties
of the Reich with foreign countries will no longer require the approval of the
legislative bodies. The Reich Cabinet will issue the rules necessary for the
execution of such treaties.

Article
5

This
law will become effective on the day of its promulgation. It becomes
ineffective on 1 April 1937. Moreover it becomes ineffective if the present
Reich Cabinet should be replaced by another.

Although the Enabling Bill
had been first suggested by non-Nazi cabinet members who thought it would
strengthen their hands against the Chancellor and his Party, its passage soon
revealed that the very opposite was true.The cabinet ceased to be a place for genuine discussion.Hitler indicated that each minister
should handle his own affairs independent of the whole government.Thus, each minister found himself cut
off from his colleagues.Within a
few weeks, it was clear that there was no united front anymore.Now that the votes of the partners in
the so-called National Concentration coalition were not longer necessary for
passage of laws through the Reichstag., the leaders in the Cabinet had little
use for each other. Thus, even protests by Alfred Hugenberg,who controlled two Ministries in the
Cabinet,received no support from
his fellow ministers, but weredismissed with disdain.

The Aftermath of the Enabling Bill

4 April 1933 Minutes of the Reich Cabinet

3.Outside the agenda:Information from the Reich Minister of
Economics,Food and Agriculture
(Dr. Hugenberg): The Reich Minister pointed out that recently SA men had
arrested chairmen and members of Chambers of Commerce who were listed as
members of the German National People's Party.These persons were removed from their positions in an
unlawful way.He would no longer
tolerate this state of affairs and urgently requested redress.

Reich
Minister Gring explained that frequently arrests had been made solely at the
request of the competent public prosecutor.Moreover, it was urgently necessary to have new elections
for the Chambers of Commerce and the Chambers of Farmers as soon as
possible.The structure of the
Chambers no longer accorded in any way with the present political
situation.It was therefore
impossible for Reich Minister Gring himself to hold back the SA.

The
Reich Minister of Economics, Food and Agriculture reported that he had already
prepared the reorganization of the provisional Reich Economic Council and that
he also wished to order the dissolution of,and new elections for,the Chambers of Commerce and of Farmers.But he had to be allowed a little time to prepare all these
things.

Even Goebbels was surprised
by how quickly the opposition faded.

6 April 1933 Goebbels Diary Entry

The
revolution which we have begun continues without interruption.It will not be long now before there
are no more political parties, but only the state-supporting and
state-responsible National Socialist Movement.What we are now experiencing is only the transferring of our
dynamics and sense of laws to the State.It is all happening so fast that it takes ones breath away,one can scarcely grasp it all.It can no longer be a question of
building the Party into the state structure;rather,the Party must become the State.Only then shall we gain the solidarity of leadership which Germany,
compared to all other States,was
so sadly lacking in the past centuries.Thank God that all responsible men absolutelyrecognize the necessity of this new line of action.The Fhrer himself has a perfectly firm
and clear goal to which he is proceeding.And he is dedicating himself to that goal as steadily now that he is in
power as he did in opposition.

The
entry for this day in his published version is not in the original text."The Fhrer's authority is now
completely in the ascendant in the Cabinet.There will be no more voting.The Fhrer alone decides.All this has been achieved much more quickly than we had
dared hope."This interpellation,however, was very accurate.

23 April 1933 Goebbels Diary Entry

Yesterday,finished all my work at the ministry.
Everything went very well.Cabinet
meeting,everything is coming
together.Even there,Hitler has completely carried the day.

By
the summer of 1933, the political parties were in total disarray.Alfred Hugenberg,after making a fool of himself at the
London Economic Conference,found
himself deserted by fellow conservatives in the Cabinet,and unable to protect his own
DNVP.He was forced to resign his
cabinet seats.This should have
triggered the fall of the cabinet, because according to Article 5 of the
Enabling Bill,changes in the
Government of National Concentration would void the powers given to the cabinet
under that law.Goebbels exulted
to his diary that no such challenge was raised.

28 June 1933 Goebbels Diary Entry

Yesterday
... in the cabinet.Hitler
announces the fall of Hugenberg.No one cries.The budget is
accepted.Hindenburgs' personal
affairs discussed.His estate is
declared to be free from taxes. ... Later with Hitler.Hugenberg's resignation is the end of
him.The reactionary front is
dissolving itself.Great
jubilation.Now we have the worst
days behind us.The Revolution can
go its way.Home very late. Today
to Stuttgart.What a joy it is to
be alive.Papen is off to Rome,Concordat discussions.

The last line refers to a
new development.Talks with the
Vatican might work to undermine even the powerful Center Party, whose voters
had remained remarkably loyal to the Church leadership.The German Bishops, however, in
response to Hitler's Reichstag speechof 23 March, had decided to attempt a reconciliation.As a result, German Conference of
Bishops issued the following statement just after the Enabling Bill was
accepted.

28 March 1933 Official Statement of the
Fulda Conference of Bishops

During
the last few years, the Bishops of the German dioceses, in their dutiful
concern for the Catholic faith and the protection of the tasks and rights of
the Catholic Church, have, for good reasons, adopted towards the National
Socialist Movement a negative attitude, expressed through prohibitions and
warnings, which were to remain in force for as long as, and as far as those
reasons remained valid.

It
must now be recognized that public and solemn declarations have been issued by
the highest representative of the Reich Government, who is simultaneously the
authoritarian leader of that movement, which acknowledge the inviolability of
the teachings of the Catholic faith and the immutable tasks and rights of the
Church. Similarly, the full validity of the treaties concluded between the
various German states and the Church is guaranteed. Without revoking the
condemnation of certain religious and ethical errors, as contained in our
previous statementsthe Episcopate
nevertheless believes it can cherish the hope that those general warnings and
prohibitions need no longer be regarded as necessary.

Catholic
Christians, for whom the opinion of their Church is sacred, need no particular
admonition to be loyal to the legally constituted authorities, to fulfill their
civic duties conscientiously, and to reject absolutely any illegal or
revolutionary activity. The admonition, which has so often been solemnly
addressed to all Catholics, namely to stand up for peace and the social welfare
of the nation, for the protection of Christian religion and morality, for the
freedom and rights of the Catholic Church and the protection of the
denominational schools and Catholic youth organizations, is still valid.

If even the Bishops decided
to forsake their long-term opposition, it is not surprising that the rank and
file of the Center Party were confused by the new developments. Many were now
caught up in patriotic enthusiasm.Historically a persecuted minority in many parts of Germany, it is not
surprising that some Catholics were anxious to prove their loyalty, especially
because in doing so they were only faithfully following the examples set by the
Bishops' Conference.

1 April 1933 Declaration of the Catholic
Teachers' Association of Germany

As
in the August days of 1914, a feeling of national and German emotion has seized
our people.The status quo has
been overthrown and new objectives have been set for a new, developing German
nation and a new German state.Regrettably, the Catholic leadership and Catholic elements have been as
little involved in this change as they were in the foundation of Bismarck's
Reich.Thanks to the warning
summons of Adolf Hitler and his Movement, and to his work, we have succeeded in
breaking through the un-German spirit which prevailed in the revolution of
1918.

Now
the whole German nation in all its various parts, including Catholics, has been
summoned to cooperate and to build a new order.At this critical moment, Catholicism must not once again
stand aside, adopting a wait-and-see attitude.We will lend a hand to help with the construction of a new
Reich and a new nation, putting our trust in the leader of the German and
Vlkisch Movement.If an appeal is
made to our natural and true impulses and to all groups that comprise our
historic nationality in its totality, the Catholic element cannot be dispensed
with.Over the past centuries, it
has become our destiny for the German to grow out of both Catholicism and the
national characteristics of the German race.After a period of decline, we now have the duty of
participating in the reorientation towards a rise and a renaissance.We must -- and here we agree completely
with the leader of the national movement -- we must first become an internally
unified nation of German men and women.We must put aside everything which divides us and shake hands across the
barriers which have hitherto been overemphasized, in order once more to become
a nation which believes in honor, cleanliness, and loyalty.The essence of the practicing Catholic
population, as embodied in associations, professional groups, and
life-styles,is coming to the fore
in order to consider what specific Catholic contribution can be made to the
national task.

Meanwhile,Vice-Chancellor Papen was negotiating
directly with the Vatican,securing some important concessions for the new Government of National
Concentration.

5 July 1933 Goebbels Diary Entry

Yesterday
....Ate lunch with Hitler.Papen
has arrived at a Concordat with the Vatican.But watch out!He himself is little more than a Church lackey!... At night visited Hitler.He told tales about the war.No one can be so entertaining in his
stories.˙

Others in the Cabinet and
the party shared Goebbels' apprehension about the recognition of the Papacy to
protect Catholic rights in Germany,but Hitler was jubilant.For him, the important point was political.˙

14 July 1933 Cabinet Minutes

The
Reich Chancellor saw three great advantages in the conclusion of the Reich
Concordat:

1.
that the Vatican had negotiated at all,considering that they operated, especially in Austria,on the assumption that National
Socialism was un-Christian and inimical to the Church;

2.
that the Vatican should have been persuaded to bring about good relations with
this purely national German State.He, the Reich Chancellor, would even a short time ago have thought it
impossible that the Church would be willing to commit its bishops to the
support of this State.The fact
that this had now been done was certainly an unreserved recognition of the
present regime;

3.
that,with the Concordat, the
Church has withdrawn from activity in associations and parties, and, for
instance, has abandoned even the Christian labor unions.This also the Reich Chancellor would,
even a few months ago, have thought impossible.Even the dissolution of the Center Party has been insured
for by the terms of the Concordat,the Vatican has ordered the permanent exclusion of the clergy from party
politics.

The
objective which he, the Reich Chancellor, had always striven for, namely an
agreement with the Curia, has been attained so much faster than he had imagined
even on 30January.This was such an indescribable success
and in the face of that fact, all critical misgivings should be withdrawn.

Even
before the Concordat was officially signed, Hitler's tactics paid off:the Center Party dissolved itself.Particularly enlightening on that event
is the following private memorandum by Karl Bachem,a Reichstag Deputy and historian. Writtenin the summer of 1933, this document
shows primarily the feeling of impotence, which we have already noted in the
diary of Erich Ebermayer.

5 July 1933 Karl Bachem Notes on the
Dissolution of the Center Party

So
the Center has been formally dissolved by its own resolution!It is said that Brning was strongly
against.But concern for the
Catholic civil servants was decisive.Brning had wanted to wait for the Government to dissolve the Center
Party [as it had abolished the SPD on 23 June], which would insure that the
Center Party need not bear any responsibility.The same with the Bavarian People's Party.All political activity in the spirit of
the old Center Party is from now on impossible and "forbidden."It has been quite openly declared that
any further attempts at such activities will be crushed by brute force.

This
is indeed a terrible fate, hardly conceivable for a party with such an
honorable record of more than sixty years' achievement.One can do nothing but succumb
patiently and meekly to this decision of Divine Providence; even if this time
it seems hard, very hard.... No wonder that particularly the younger, lively
members of the Party are terribly upset and use harsh words accusing Brning,
Kaas and all the other leaders of having helped to bring about the downfall of
the party through their inactivity and cowardice.But what in practical terms could Brning and Kaas have
done?Would it have been of any
use to call on the Catholic population and the whole Center Party to offer united
resistance?Such resistance would
have at once shown up the physical powerlessness of the party and would have
been brutally suppressed; the leaders would have immediately been taken into
"protective custody", and thereby have been rendered harmless.The Bishops, having voted unanimously
for the recognition of the new government, such resistance, no longer morally
defensible, would have been impossible for us.There is nothing left to do but to follow the example of the
Bishops and, in spite of everything, continue to try and remain concerned for
the protection of our religious interests within the National Socialist Party
and in cooperation with it.Nothing else is now possible.All our large organizations have been destroyed.Even the apprentices' associations have
been deprived of their independence and coordinated with the "National
Socialist Workers' Front."

What
will happen now no one can say.In
the meantime, the future before us remains extremely black.In practice, we can do nothing but
continue to try and work for our religious principles within the National
Socialist Party and through quiet cooperation in its organizations.National Socialists, particularly
Hitler, have often declared that they want "positive Christianity" as
the basis of the State, that they regard the Catholic as well as the Protestant
Confessions as "the most important factors for the preservation of our
national character."That is
something, even if is not yet clear what this "positive Christianity"
will be like and what its effects will be.So our people must now act as "leaven," as the
"salt of the earth," in order to help the right principles to
predominate....

After describing the
chronic state of crisis under the Weimar Republic Bachem concludes with a naive
anti-Communism which justifies unpalatable Nazi measures without fussing about
"legal subtleties."

In
short, no more headway could be made with the democratic form of
government;there could no longer
be any illusions about this.Not
with the Center's old principle of seeking improvement in conditions only in a
constitutional way, observing regulations and existing laws.If the nation were not to sink into
poverty and the life of the state be completely ruined, a different way had to
be found to get out of this appalling situation.It was clear that if this were to be done it would not
always be possible to observe the letter of the law....

So
one could only be grateful to the new men who, with determination, took into
their hands the task of saving Germany.It really was not possible to go on any further without force, without
using the principle of force, and since the Center, because of its past, could
not subscribe to this principle, it could not complain if it were pushed
aside.Therefore, it is right to
let the new men, particularly the leaders of the National Socialists, go ahead
and not put unnecessary obstacles in their way.There are a lot of dubious things in the National Socialist
Movement, particularly so far as principles are concerned, but that has to be
put up with for the time being.Today there is no point in being fussy about legal subtleties.What matters is first to let a strong,
efficient government grow and then to support it wholeheartedly in order to
suppress Bolshevism.It does seem
as if Communism has become so strong in Germany, so presumptuous, and so
self-confident that it is high time to counter it with determination [unless we
want] a new Communist revolution and a terrible civil war.

But
despite all this, it is hard for the Center Party to disappear without a trace
after such a long and honorable activity.In days to come they may say:It had fulfilled its task and could leave the stage of history.But has that task been fulfilled for
the future as well? Who from now
on will look after the interests of religion, the freedom and welfare of the
Church?Are we not now dependent
solely on the goodwill of the National Socialist Party?Will the Church keep its rights when no
real political power exists to defend them?It is certain that even Catholics loyal to the Church will
now join the National Socialist formations in great numbers, just as in
Italy.But will their influence
there become strong enough to check new animosities against the Catholic
Church, especially attacks on our Catholic denominational schools and the
schools of our orders etc.?There
is to be a Concordat with the Vatican.If the Pope concludes it, he will take the vital interests of the Church
into account.But will such a
Concordat remain permanently valid if there is no political power to support
its validity?...

When intelligent and
conscientious political leaders follow such fatalistic thoughts, and when
onepolitical organization after
another disbanded,it did not
really need a government decree to make the NSDAP the sole party in
Germany.Although many historians
have seen the following infamous decree as the start of the Nazi
Dictatorship,such an
interpretation does not seem likely.Instead, faced with a huge increase in new membership (often referred to
derisively as the "March victims" because they joined after the March
elections),many in the Nazi Party
feared that some of these new recruits would seek to recreate their old
political parties as elements within the NSDAP.So the following decree was really aimed at preventing the
Nazi party from becoming fragmented.

14 July 1933 Decree Against Establishment of
New Political Parties

The
German Cabinet has resolved the following law, which is herewith
promulgated:

Article
1˙

The
National Socialists German Workers' Party (NSDAP) constitutes the only
political party in Germany.

Article
2

Whoever
undertakes to maintain the organizational structure of another political party
or to form a new political party will be punished with penal servitude of up to
three years or with imprisonment of from six months to three years, if the deed
is not subject to a greater penalty according to other regulations.

Creating the Third Reich

The
real force of the Enabling Bill and the self-suppression of the political
parties was to eliminate the Reichstag as a legislative organization.
Henceforth it served only as a sounding board should Hitler want to give a major
speech. Between 1933 and 1945, the German Reichstag passed only seven
laws!In place of Reichstag
laws, or Emergency Decrees by the President, Germany became ruled by
"governmental orders."

Under
these circumstances, power would naturally have passed into the hands of the
professional civil servants, the trained administrators ranging from Federal
bureaucrats down through numerous levels of state, municipal, and county
officials.Many of these had long
desired a more centralized governmental system, in the belief that they could
insure a rational and efficient administration which would restore order to
Germany.

But
the civil servants who treasured such hopes were in for a major disappointment.
During March-April 1933, under the initiative of local party organizations, and
with little or no direction from Berlin,many officials in local and regional government were forced to resign
and were replaced by Party men. At the same time, a large number of SA "commissars"
moved into Government offices at various levels.Their sole claim to legitimate authority was that they were
making sure the old civil servants were following the principles of the
newregime.

Hitler,Frick (Reich Minister of the Interior)
and Gring the Prussian Minister of the Interior) were anxious to purge the
Civil Service of politically and ideologically objectionable elements, but at
the same time they had to stabilize their new order, and this required the
cooperation of an expert bureaucracy.As we have seen, both the federal Government and Nazi party officials
encountered great difficulty in controlling local SA and Party
organizations.As a result, most
state officials soon learned how to look the other way and often accepted local
˙fait accomplis˙ But all these activities threatened the old Civil Service and
undermined administrative effectiveness.

The
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service of 7 April 1933 was
an attempt by the Government to do two things at once:restore some stability to the civil service
threatened by these "wild" local Nazis,and exploit an allegation repeatedly made by the Right
during the Weimar Republic that democrats and Leftists had filled the
bureaucracy with unqualified people who owed their appointments to the fact
that they carried the right party card.

The
law give very wide scope for altering and controlling careers, something
previously impossible under Civil Service regulations. Thus among other things
it was welcomed by many because it facilitated appointments of younger, more
energetic administrator,and sawed
off much dead wood. Significantly,it did not provide for a deliberate policy of "affirmative
action,"that is requiring
units to hire Nazi members.

7 April 1933 Law for the Restoration of the
Professional Civil Service

Article
I

1.
In order to restore a national professional Civil Service and to simplify the
administration, officials may be dismissed under the following regulations,
even when the necessary conditions under the relevant law do not exist.

2.
The term "officials," as used in this law, means direct and indirect
officials of the Reich, direct and indirect officials of the federal states,
officials of local government and local government associations, officials of
public corporations as well as institutions and undertakings of the same status
as these public corporations. The regulations apply also to employees of
agencies supplying social insurance, who have the rights and duties of
officials.

3.
"Officials." as used in this law, also includes officials in
temporary retirement.

4.
The Reich Bank and the German State Railway are empowered to make corresponding
regulations.

Article
II

1.
Officials who attained the status of officials after 9 November 1918 without
possessing the requisite or usual training or other qualifications are to be
dismissed from the service. Their previous salaries will be accorded to them
for a period of three months after their dismissal.

2.
They have no right to allowances, pensions, or dependents' pensions nor to the continued
use of the official designation, the title, the official uniform and the
official insignia.

3.
In cases of need, a pension, revocable at any time, equivalent to a third of
the normal basic salary of the last position held by them, may be granted them,
especially when they are caring for dependent relatives; reinsurance according
to the provisions of the Reich social insurance law will not occur.

4.
The provisions in Sections 2 and 3 will be applied in the case of persons who
come under the provisions of Section I and who had already been retired before
this law came into effect.

Article
III˙

1. Officials who are of non-Aryan
descent are to be retired;honorary officials are to be dismissed from office.

2.
Section 1 does not apply to officials who were already in service on 1 August
1914, or who fought in the world war at the front for the German Reich, or who
fought for its allies, or whose fathers or sons were killed in the world war.
The Reich Minister of the Interior, with the agreement of the competent
departmental minister, or of the highest authorities of the federal states, may
permit further exceptions in the case of officials who are abroad.

Article
IV

Officials
who because of their previous political activity do not offer security that they
will act at all times and without reservation in the interests of the national
state can be dismissed from the service. They are to be accorded their previous
salary for a period of three months after dismissal. From then on, they will
receive three-quarters of their pension and corresponding dependents' benefits.

Article
V

1. Every official must allow himself to
be transferred to another office in the same or equivalent career, even to one
carrying a lower rank or regular salary reimbursement for the prescribed costs
of transfer will be given if the needs of the service require it. If the
official is transferred to an office of lower rank and regular salary he
retains his previous official title and the official income of his former
position.

2.
In place of transfer to an office of lower rank and regular income, the
official can request to be retired.

Article
VI

Officials
can be retired for the purpose of rationalizing the administration even if they
are not yet unfit for service. If officials are retired for this reason, their
places may not be filled again.

Article
VII˙

Dismissal from office, transfer to
another office and retirement will be ordered by the highest Reich or federal
state agency which will make the final decision without right of appeal against
it.

Article
VIII

A
pension will not be granted to the officials dismissed or retired in accordance
with Articles 3 and 4, if they have not completed a term of service of at least
ten years: this applies also to the cases in which, according to the existing
regulation a pension is accorded after a shorter term of service.. ˙

Although
it is difficult to establish exact figures for the number of officials who were
fired or retired under this new law,its effects were comparatively small.In Prussia,which had been ruled by an SPD-Center coalition since 1919,a systematic attempt had been made to
"democratize" civil servants.There,12.5% of the 1,663
administrative grade civil servants in Prussia were fired about 205 officials
and 15.5% were transferred about 260 officials.In the other states 4.5 per cent of administrative grade
civil servants were affected. An even smaller percentage of middle and
lower-ranking civil servants were were involved.

Despite
the relatively small numbers involved,this process had profound results throughout the country.It came to be called "Gleichschaltung˙
a term meaning to synchronize or standardize as is accomplished by a voltage
regulator.

Gleichschaltung of the Civil Servants

At first, the
implementation of the law was in the hands of State authorities, enabling them
for the time being at any rate to retain full control of personnel policy,
independent of interference from the Party.And in implementing rules by which the civil service should
be purged,Gring himself,who had been appointed on 11 April as
Minister-President (i.e. Governor} of Prussia,the largest German State, went out of his way to criticize
the excesses then going on.This
next document of a meeting chaired by Gring reveals not a determined Nazi plan
to completely reorganize the Civil Service,but an improvisational removal of hostile elements.

25 April 1933 Record of a Ministerial
Discussion in the Prussian Administration

Gring
in very forceful and impressive words said roughly the following: The Reich
Chancellor had asked him to draw up certain guidelines. It was an unusual and
extremely important law, therefore only the Minister could make the final
decisions. Half a year was hardly enough time to carry out a purge of the
administration in Prussia. The[ Italian] Fascist purge law had had lasted two
years. ... He particularly wished to point out the dangers to which the law
could lead under confined local circumstances, where everyone more or less knew
everyone else. A truly strong personality should be able to overcome any
feelings of personal hostility or private desires for revenge. "Someone or
other who has grumbled about us some time before" may, in fact be a very
capable civil servant, and thus he need not be damned just like that.

The
carrying out of the law in the individual states [as opposed to the Federal
Bureaucracy] was up to the individual governments themselves. The question of
how far the Party could be involved depended on the circumstances. But it was
very important that in the making of these decisions only such people should
take part who were absolutely decent characters, and not themselves candidates
for the new vacancies.National
Socialists were not immune from human weakness. He was preparing a law for
Prussia that every informer who could not absolutely prove the truth of his
statements should be punished with the full force of the law.

Civil
servants who belong to outlawed parties should be dismissed. But one should
take care not thereby to create new Nazi-Party civil servants. This did not of
course exclude, in isolated cases, people being appointed civil servants who
did not have the proper full training, if this lack of training were made up
for by a clear eye for the political situation and a decent character. In this
context, the Prime Minister attacked sharply time-servers who often seemed to
be more papal than the Pope. It riled him to see how in his own ministry, in
which it was well known that more than 60% of the civil servants had been
members of the SPD, within a few days swastika badges had popped up out of the
ground like mushrooms and only after four days the clicking of heels and
raising of hands had become a common sight in the corridors. The Prime Minister
gave his full approval to those civil servants who, because of their character
and sense of decency, had certain inhibitions about going into the National
Socialist Party at this particular moment, and who thus were especially exposed
to the pressure and hatred of those who had already climbed on the bandwagon.
Such civil servants were, in his opinion, "the most valuable workers"
for the new government as well.

The
wild "army of commissars" [i.e. local SA leaders and their groups]
threatened gradually to undermine and shatter the authority of the State.
Yesterday he had abolished these commissars in Prussia. They produced great
confusion and caused considerable disruption in private firms.In practice, they had often turned out
to be aspirants for directorships, insisting on creating vacancies for
themselves. Often they had become a public menace.... In some instances, the
Prime Minister had been forced to intervene and protect his civil servants.
Attacks by the government press on civil servants should not be allowed.There should be no dismissals on
trivial pretexts. If a mayor installed a bathroom in 1927, even if he over
spent the budget a little to do so, or if he had given his aunt a lift in his
official car, the matter should now be dropped....Hardly a single large enterprise can be found in which over
the decades irregularities have not occurred. There is no point in dragging all
this into the open....

The
Chancellor had emphatically pointed out that there were two things which must
not be overlooked in implementing the new decree: 1.President Hindenburg, and 2. foreign countries.

1.
Both the President and the Chancellor wish that, in particular, the withdrawal
of pensions should be handled carefully and with a certain generosity. A petty
attitude only created hotbeds of hatred and embitterment.... Swamping the
President's office with complaints about the workings of the new decree [by
people ousted under its workings] must be avoided at all costs.

2.
Germany can not simply say we shall do what we like. Our isolation as a country
was unique. The Jews were working extremely hard to aggravate it. Therefore we
must hit the Jews hard, but we must not give them a chance to attack us as
barbarians in places where it could be interpreted the wrong way. A Jew who had
contributed something scientifically important for humanity must not be
removed; the world would not understand that. The President would examine again
the question whether such scientific experts were not exempted as former
soldiers had been.

In
conclusion, the Prime Minister made the following point with great gravity:
"I remind you of the seriousness of the law; you must bear in mind that
your signature [of dismissal of an official] is often equivalent to a death
sentence. This you must settle with your consciences.... The dismissal, the
assessment and the weeding out of individuals must therefore lie only in the
hands of men of character.

But from the very start,
this limited purge of the Civil Service provoked a strong resentment among
Party militants.Many of them
simply ignored the guidelines and continued their own warfare against local officials.Others protested strongly to party headquarters.
The following memorandum is typical of their demands for a thoroughly Nazified
civil service, even at the expense of efficiency and competence.

26 May 1934 Memorandum by SA
Obersturmbannfhrer Hans von Helms

Among
the most difficult tasks which the National Socialist State still has to solve
during the next few years is the question of "Party and State."Although the identity of Party and
State must be our ultimate aim, the realization of this aim is at the moment a
long way off. Anyone who has had the opportunity, on the one hand, of closely
following the organization of the Party through all the phases of its
development from its beginnings to the seizure of power by the Fhrer and
played an active part in its success, and on the other hand then worked in the
State apparatus of the new Reich,must unfortunately admit that the influence of the Party on the State
and the permeation of the State with National Socialist ideas does not
correspond with the sacrifices made by the Movement. The last few months in
particular show a considerable decrease in the rate of growth of National
Socialist influence upon the State.

The
State apparatus, whose character, and particularly whose methods of
administration and bureaucracy, represents in itself a certain element of
danger for a National Socialist Government with different methods, is still far
from making National Socialist ideas its most important tools. This is most
strongly pronounced in the behavior of a large section of the representatives
of our State, the civil servants. The best gauge for the permeation of a State
by an idea is still the appointment policy pursued by that State. Since
everyone knows that "men make history," one will be able to tell by
the faces of people employed in decisive positions whether they are willing to
pull their weight for the new State or whether they have no comprehension of,
or sympathy for, National Socialism....Once again people are beginning to value a person's knowledge more
highly than his character. People there are daring to defame old experienced
fighters of our Movement, who have been taken into the administration for
political reasons, in order to form a counterweight to old, burnt-out and
unreliable time-servers!These old
fighters are reproached now with lack of knowledge, and urged to learn
administrative techniques, whereas in fact these officials are the best
guarantee of the thorough permeation of the State by National Socialism.

Very
often it would be better if the administrative bosses used old Party warriors
instead of falling for those who joined the Party after the March 1933 election
[Mrzgefallene].

In
part, this is the result of fundamental errors made during the first months in
the form of compromises which were probably unavoidable because National
Socialism had not yet acquired total control over the State. So now also
unfortunate compromises have to be put up with in the filling of posts. But
even now there would be time to improve things if a consistent appointments
policy were pursued, a policy which would prove particularly productive in the
central administration. It must be self-evident for the National Socialist
State that the head of a personnel department and the official in charge of
personnel in the central administration, who in turn have to be entrusted with
the personnel files of their subordinate offices, should be trusted agents of
the Party, men who have proved themselves as old Party fighters before the
seizure of power....

But
circumstances have brought it about that people often fill decisive positions
in the state apparatus who are either not National Socialists, or who (though
members of the party) have been infected by other ideologies in such a way that
they no longer detect a policy that is disloyal to National Socialism. It is
therefore particularly important that measures taken by the central
authorities, among them their appointment policy, are examined to see whether
they are correct from a National Socialist point of view.

ü

Is
it possible for a Party member or the representative of the Party within the NS
Civil Service Union to report any abuses to the Party leadership and thus act
as the eyes and ears of the Party? Unfortunately the answer is No!

As
can be seen from the enclosed decree of the Prussian Minister-President of 4
October 1933 and the Prussian Minister of the Interior of 4 August 1933, the NS
Civil Service Union is even forbidden to report on un-National Socialist
behavior to the Party or to disclose abuses unless the person reporting wishes
to expose himself to the risk of disciplinary action....

If
the Party were now to ask for a list of the officials in a particular ministry,
arranged according to departments and listing the party each had belonged to
before the Seizure of Power, and if the contents of that list were ...
unfavorable for the party, that person would probably receive official
punishment.This state of affairs
is completely intolerable, since the Party itself now has no means of control
over the execution of National Socialist ideas.

Of
course, the authority of the head of the ministry must be recognized.But because of the amount of work
involved, it is absolutely impossible for him to be informed about all matters,
especially if he is surrounded by the wrong advisors....There is a great danger that in the
near future even National Socialist Ministerial Chiefs will have only a
bureaucratic apparatus behind the, whose representatives lack true National
Socialist principles.The pillars
of the Party in times of need were always the old Party fighters.This must no be under-estimated!!

In
a subsequent chapter,we shall
examine the wholesale purging of Jewish officials under this same law.Significantly, most lost their jobs
through denunciations from colleagues.Indeed, to understand Gleichschaltung properly,we must constantly remind ourselves of
how willingly the individual units joined in the process.In a few years, the civil service would
admittedly become thoroughly disillusioned by the continual denigrationand attacks on their profession
(usually with Hitler's barely concealed support),and byconstant
opposition and subversion from local Party functionaries.But at the outset,many professionals in the civil service
were romantically optimistic and thought the Nazis would actually bring an
improvement in their occupational calling.Thus they enthusiastically supported drastic purges of their
own colleagues.Without this
active support, the Nazi leadership would have encountered determined and
perhaps fatal opposition to their plans.

The
following remarkable memorandum is by Fritz-Dietlof Count von der Schulenburg,
a young Prussian aristocrat and junior official in the field administration of
the Prussian Ministry of the Interior.Although he would eventuallybecome hostile to the Nazi State,and be executed for his participation in the plot to kill Hitler,initially, he was sympathetic enough to
National Socialism to join the Party in February 1932.The blend of idealism and
dedication found in this document was shared by many young aristocratic
intellectuals.It is amazing that
they could continue to deceive themselves that their aristocratic models were
actually acceptable to Nazis.˙

In
the period after the Revolution [of November 1918] there was no political
concept of the State behind the State itself. The parties ruled and through
them the powers which stood behind them the Jews, Capital, and the Roman
Catholic Church. The civil servant became a tool of the parties. In fourteen
years of party rule, he was continually forced to bend to them and became apart
from a few exceptions inwardly a slave. The distinctive character of the civil
service disintegrated. The parties had no experience with the value of
character. The cream of the parties judged according to the party card or, at
the most, on the basis of cosmopolitanintellectualism. There was no longer any specific training for the civil
service. The democratically individualistic age saw in the training of civil
servants interference in their sacrosanct individual rights. The civil service
as an estate died, since it could not survive without the cohesive force of an
ideology. The honor of the civil service faded away under the dirt of party
rule. ...

The
result of this development was: the old Prussian civil service with its
magnificent qualities of intellect, character, and ability was shattered. It
must be reconstructed on the basis of a completely new spirit. The significance
of this reconstruction cannot be overemphasized. The most important thing is
the question of selection and recruitment. National Socialist leaders are
confronted with the task of forming the State along National Socialist lines.
The leaders are political fighters who in many respects lack expertise and
knowledge of administrative techniques. The cooperation of the bureaucracy
which has expertise and administrative skills is indispensable. The
bureaucracy, which for the most part confronts National Socialism without any
real understanding, works without enthusiasm, hinders the work and in some
areas commits sabotage. The political will of National Socialism must, however,
be implemented under all circumstances. The principle of a professional civil
service must be recognized; nevertheless, during this transitional phase, one
cannot avoid using non-professional civil servants in the posts of

Oberprsident,
Regierungsprsident, and Landrat in order to implement the political will of
National Socialism; for true political leader-types with a real sense of
responsibility and a sure instinct will be able to implement the political will
of National Socialism more effectively even on a practical basis than
uncomprehending bureaucrats, who sabotage the Government's work. The partial
use of non-professional civil servants is, however, conceivable only during a
transitional phase. ˙

In
a National Socialist state,it is
obvious that the State will recruit its new leaders from within the
administration itself... The permeation of young civil service recruits with
the National Socialist concept of the State is the task of the political
leadership. This permeation cannot originate in the universities. It is the
task of fanatical political leaders and fighters."Character"must again be considered the highest value. Faith, character, judgment,
and drive are decisive for the quality of a civil servant. The selection must
include the biologically best from all classes; it must not remain a privilege
of the so-called educated classes. Fighters from the SA, SS, and the
paramilitary leagues are to be given priority. The training of civil service
recruits must be entirely concentrated on sterling character and will and
tested courage. The young civil servant must engage in sports which place a
high premium on daring, will, and endurance (flying, mountaineering, skiing,
riding, fencing). An essential part of training must lie with the civil service
itself which must once again arise as an estate. In this community, the whole
of life must revolve round the poles of honor, comradeship, and loyalty. By a
process of constant coexistence, and constant shaping, a new type of civil
servant must emerge who possesses true fighting spirit and exemplary attitudes.
The civil servant of the future must differ from the civil servant of today as
much as the Commando leader of the World War differed from the sentry of the
Ancien Regime. True responsibility must live again....

The
proposed reconstruction of the civil service represents a complete rejection of
previous principles. It requires radical, bold decisions. Without such
decisions, however, it will be just as impossible to carry through the
revolution in the civil service as it will be in the sphere of general State
policy. The Liberation of 1813 was only conceivable with an army which had been
reconstructed out of a revolutionary spirit. In the same way the Civil Service
and the State can liberate Germany and secure it the necessary space for its
development only if the Civil Service is reconstructed out of the spirit of the
national revolution.

The Problem of the Individual States

If
the purges of the civil service reflect little in the way of a well-thought-out
Nazi plan,the changes which the
new government brought about in the constitutional structure is even more
confusing.Very early in its life,the Government of National
Concentration took up the troublesome question of the relationship between the
individual German States and the Federal Government.Ever since the start of the Weimar Republic,reformers had urged elimination of some
of the administrative duplication,especially because the existing units were historicalanachronisms with little or no internal
unity and purpose.The short-lived
Papen government had essentially ended the independence of Prussia (2/3's of
Germany), by placing it directly under the Federal Government, and administering
the State by an appointed Commissioner who worked through the various Federal
Ministries.

For
many years, officials of the Reich Ministry of the Interior had considered the
lack of centralized authority to be the major cause of the economic and
financial difficulties which the Republicencountered.Many experts
blamed the Inflation upon the plethora of democratically -elected local and
state authorities, and they argued that all this division of authority
unnecessarily hampered attempts to recover from the Depression by creating
efficient fiscal planning.Almost
every administration during the Republican years had complained about the
needless duplication of administrative expenses.

In
the economic crisis facing Germany, officials of all political persuasion
recommended greater degrees of centralized authority.Thus, they urged the new government to issue the following
decree.Once more, had this been
only a "Nazi goal,"there is no way it could have been implemented in 1933.

7 April 1933 Gleichschaltung Decree of the
Individual States under the Reich

The
Government of the Reich has decreed the following law which is promulgated
herewith:

In
all German states with the exception of Prussia [where this process had already
occurred], the President, upon the nomination of the Chancellor, will name
Federal Commissioners. These Commissioners have the duty to supervise the
implementation of the policy decisions of the Chancellor. The following state
powers now pass to the Commissioners:

1.
The selection and dismissal of the heads of government in the individual
states....

2.
The dissolution of the state legislative bodies and the scheduling of new
elections....

3.
The preparation and proclamation of new laws....

4.
The selection or dismissal of independent civil servants and judges.

The
Federal Commissioner is appointed for the duration of the legislative period of
the States. He can be recalled at any time by the President, at the suggestion
of the Chancellor....

Votes
of no-confidence of the State Legislature against the head and members of the
state government are not permissible....

Despite this law, little
improvement in administration occurred.Relations became an endemic conflict between the Federal Commissioners
and the heads of the State Governments, the Minister Presidents.A typical example was the following
clash in August 1933 between Professor Werner,Minister-President of Hesse and Jakob Sprenger, the Federal
Commissioner and Gauleiter of Hesse.Both men were fanatic and long-time Nazis; but their conflict wasover respective claims to
authority:

August 1933 Memorandum of
a Meeting Between Minister-President Werner of Hesse,and the Federal Commissioner-Gauleiter Jakob Sprenger

Minister-President
Werner:Things have unfortunately
not been settled in detail. Because of this it was possible for the State
Secretary, when going away on holiday, to tell me that he had appointed Herr
Ringshausen as his deputy. That is preposterous. I am the only person who can
be deputy and when I go on holiday the State Secretary deputizes for me. Thus
the whole thing is fluid and gives rise to misunderstandings which must be
removed. Clear lines of demarcation are best: clear lines of demarcation as to
the position of the state government in relation to the representative of the Fhrer,
the Federal Commissioner, and clear lines of demarcation between the
Minister-President and the State Secretary, and between him and the Government.
I once told the Fhrer in a conference: Transfer all authority to the Federal
Commissioner. Since he rejected this and declared that it did not correspond to
the intentions of the Federal Commissioners' Law, a separate head became
necessary for the Government. This entailed a demarcation of areas of
authority. How far does the power of the Federal Commissioner reach into the
state government? A commentary is needed for the Federal Commissioners' Law and
for the state governments. Local governments are not simply organs of
administration. That is clear from the fact that they have the right of
nominating civil servants. In fact, generally speaking, I complied with all
requests regarding personnel. In one or two cases I was unable to do so and
have freely expressed my opinion on this, as you have repeatedly asked me to
do.

Commissioner
and Gauleiter Sprenger: Everything that you regard as unsettled, I now regard
as settled. From a formal point of view the letter of the law prevails; beyond
this the unwritten law of evolution. The Chancellor has declared:
"Revolution is dead, evolution has begun." I remind you of the speech
of the Fhrer in Berchtesgaden and at the Nrnberg Party Rally. In both
speeches the theory of evolution is expressed entirely unambiguously. The
Chancellor made a quite definite decision during the Berlin discussion. He
refused to be regarded as a court for dealing with complaints and, as you, Herr
Minister-President, will remember, he named me, the Federal Commissioner, as
your superior. All the things you mention here, based on past legislation, must
evolve in this direction. The Party takes precedence and is responsible for
political questions. The Government is there to administer.Since the Party began, the Gauleiter
has determined political questions . This principle was explicitly mentioned by
the Fhrer at the time we took over power. The Gauleiters are the holders of
power and as things have developed the Government has also been determined by
the Gauleiters. Let me repeat, not for the first time, everybody can express
his view like a man. I have never been biased. But if differences of opinion
occur, only one person can decide: namely, myself as Gauleiter. And when I have
made my decision, there must be no further speculation. Contact with Reich
Government offices or the Chancellor is allowed only after consultation with
and the permission of the Gauóeiter-Federal Commissioner, not otherwise. For
the Federal Government's bodies have no authority over this....

In
this fight,Gauleiter Sprenger
won,removing Minister-President
Wernerand eventually combining
the two posts of Minister-President and Gauleiter-Federal Commissioner. But in
other cases the Federal Commissioners lost out to an ambitious Minister
President.In factno clear pattern of Nazi rule emerged,
and the ambiguous relationship of State and Federal Government continued,despite the new law.Part of the chaos of these early months
of the Third Reich was the overlapping and questionable authority of so many
people.

The Plebiscite of November 1933

In October 1933,the German Government decided to
leave the Disarmament Conference,and resign from the League of Nations.These dramatic events will be examó ined in a subsequent
chapter.The move was extremely
popular, and Hitler capitalized on it by scheduling a plebiscite.In turn, this allowed Goebbels to drag
out all his propaganda skills to make the plebiscite a vote of confidence in
the new government.Erich
Ebermayer was a skeptical observer of the campaign.

2 November 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

The
election campaign has grown to gigantic dimensions.Yesterday in Weimar, Hitler declared:"If today in Germany there are
people who say:we do not choose
to enter your community, and we intend to remain as we were to these I
say:the day will come when you
will be gone, and after you will come a youth, who know no other community but
ours."

This
sentence seems to have been directed by Hitler to me personally, and at least
to myself I must give some sort of answer.Can those of us who choose not to enter his community, who
daily find ourselves more despised, more isolated, more cut off from our roots,
can we really claim that we will remain as we were?Have we the courage, can we really have the courage to truly
believe that?In spite of many
hours of despair and doubts I must still return with a loud and decisive
"Yes."Although at
present everything works against us, although the tide has overwhelmed us and
it seems to have washed many of us away I still believe that we can remain as
we were!I believe that we who are
today so powerless will one day be powerful, be necessary, when the spring
floods recede.

What
justifies this faith?Nothing at
present or at least, not very much.Only a feeling.A feeling
that the German people, while they seem to be predestined like no other peoples
in the world to fall into error, to worship false gods, to be fooled by every
bluff and swindle, are still at the core healthy and true and young, and that
in the deepest part of their souls -- which today have been powerfully shaken
by terror --the German people
remain a just and decent nation.

When
will this people come to its sense?Will we, who do not choose to enter the new community live to witness
the return, the purification?That
is unimportant.The question is,
will the German people have the power to throw off, on its own, this destroyer
of the best part of itself, or will it first have to go through a new vale of
suffering, perhaps even a second world war, in order then, with foreign help,
to rediscover itself?Who can
predict or even guess at this today?...

12 November 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

Election
day!Through empty streets, wet
with fog, the families go to vote, deeply content that by so doing they will,
according to the Fhrer 's speech, "prove themselves to be decent Germans."How easy and comforting to be or prove
yourselves to be "decent" just by putting a cross on the right side
of the ballot....

Now
already millions of Yes votes are dropping in the ballot boxes.The most insane kinds of rumors are
circulating about violations of the secret ballot.A system of mirrors, some say, has been arranged so that
even in the booths, the voter is controlled.Others claim that there is a device in the box so that after
the ballots are deposited, those of "notorious" citizens can be
separated and inspected later.I
am convinced that all these rumors have been started by the Propaganda Ministry
itself with devilish cunning, in order to shock the common man.In any case, it has worked
brilliantly.Everyone seems
frightened for his bread, his freedom, his life, his middle-class
comforts.

Mother
and I were not hindered in any apparent way as we performed our civic
duties.Only a few "Heil
Hitlers" rang out in the hall, as we entered the familiar school.The whole supervisory board at our
precinct were common people, long inhabitants in our neighborhood and they all
have known us for decades.M made
it even easier.He wrote "rubbish"
all over the ballot in his scrawling hand.That really is the point.

His
ballot will probably be counted as "invalid."

13 November 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

40.6
million Yes.2.1 million
No's.A further half million
"invalid."

Throughout
the election campaign violence from the SA was frequent,and the following documents show the
impotence of government officials to stop it.

14 November 1933Bimonthly Report of the County Office
at Aichach, Upper Bavaria

The
electionswere conducted
throughout the county without any disturbances.Participation was very enthusiastic.In the plebiscite, 17,788 voters
participated, of whom 17,470 voted "Yes."For the Reichstag elections, 17,776 votes were registered,
of which 17,319 voted for the NSDAP.Voter turnout in the County was 99.2%.In spite of legal requirements and in spite of the public
notice that the vote was to be conducted by secret ballot, not everywhere was
this rule followed, part of the cause for this was doubtlessly the actions of
the NSDAP, who in the election campaign had expressed the viewpoint that the
true National Socialists did not vote secretly, but publicly.Thus it happened that in Aichach, the
majority of the voters did not turn their ballots into the box provided, but
[gave them openly]to the Election
Commissioners.In Aichach also the
Commissioners themselves went out to homes of people who were sick, in order to
collect the ballots, and in a few villages, new Election Commissions [composed
entirely of National Socialists] were created.And when some individuals dared
to vote differently,there were
unpleasant scenes.˙

16 November 1933 Complaint of the Mayor of T

Because
there had been five negative vote in the plebiscite last Monday, November 13,
between 8 and 9 in the evening,our peaceful and quiet village eruptedin tumultuous chaos, perpetrated by apparent SA men in civil
clothes, under the direction of SA leader HP.Crying out "Down with traitors to the Fatherland",
they paraded through the streets.I hurried down to find out what was happening.When I arrived, I found that all the street lamps had been
broken and the town was pitch black.I told my son who was with me to hurry over and replace the bulbs so
that the lights could go back on.As this was taking place, HP hurried over to me and said:"The lights must stay
off."I repeated my order
that they must go on.HP then went
back to his people and commanded them to come with him.They gathered before the house of Herr
X chanting: "down with traitors to the Fatherland."As a representative of the district
police, I then approached the excited crowd and ordered them to keep quiet and
to disband from the streets.None
moved, so I gave the order a second and then a third time that they should
disperse.Then HP called out to
his people:"Everyone stand
still."As I then began to gather
the names of the unruly people, they all ran away, including HP.I was still able, however, to get a few
names.

To
solve this ongoing chaos,so
typical of the kind of problems the Nazis created, high officials in the
Federal Ministry of Interior who had long wished to limit the powers of the
individual states sawa golden
opportunity of creating a bureaucratic power base independent of both the
NSDAP's party structure AND parliamentary politics.

Their
centralizing ambitions met with the full approval of their Nazi Minister,
Wilhelm Frick, himself an old experienced civil servant from the Bavarian
Ministry of the Interior.For his
own private purposes, Frick wanted to reduce the federal states to a sort of
local field administration of his own ministry,yet he did not want to promote into positions of power minor
Nazi Party officials from the Munich headquartersSo, he and the civil servants prepared a law
abolishing Weimar's federal system, subordinating the individual state
governments to Reich authorities, which would be staffed largely with non-Nazi
professionals.

They were working on this
project just as the right moment to introduce it came,following the tremendous victory at the
polls.Hitler now agreed to
introduce Frick's sweeping organizational reform.Although technically the Weimar Constitution remained in
force, this new law removed most of its democratic local autonomy.In effect, this law created the
"Third Reich."Surprisingly,it owed very
little to Hitler or his chief Nazis.

Gleichschaltung
of the Individual States˙

30 January 1934 Law for the Reconstruction
of the Reich

The
Popular Referendum and the Reichstag election of 12 November 1933 have proven
that the German people have attained an indestructible internal unity superior
to all internal sub-divisions of political character.

Consequently,
the Reichstag has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated with
the unanimous vote of the Reichstag after ascertaining that the requirements of
the Reich constitution have been met:

Article
1

Elected
Legislative assemblies of the individual states shall be abolished.

Article
2

The
sovereign powers of the individual states are transferred to the Reich.The state governments are placed under
the Reich government.

Article
3˙

The
Reich Commissioners are placed under the administrative supervision of the
Reich Ministry of the Interior.

Article
4˙

The
Reich Government may issue new constitutional laws.

Article
5˙

The
Reich Minister of Interior may administer the necessary legal and
administrative regulations for the execution of the law.

It
would be a mistake to think that this was the end of it, the creation of a NEW
ORDER,for this new law in turn made
the Federal Commissioners superfluous.Characteristically,no one
proposed eliminating the post of Federal Commissioner. So in violation of all
the principles of good administration, all the Federal Commissioners and
Minister-Presidents remained locked in conflict.Since the Minister-President of each states was now himself
directly under the Reich/Prussian Ministry of the Interior, what was the role
of the Federal Commissioners to supervise and implement Reich policy in the
states?

Moreover,
the new Law actually created a new source of conflict.By subordinating both the Minister
Presidents and the Federal Commissioners to the Reich Minister of the Interior
(Art. 3), senior Nazi Gauleiters (all of whom had added one or the other of
these positions to their own title) now saw their own independence threatened.

The
very fact that such conflicts erupted almost immediately indicates once again
how State Officials,in this case
the Ministry of the Interior,were
attempting to set aside the Nazi Party as the power broker of the new German
State.˙

I
am taking the liberty of asking you for your opinion on the following matter:
The position of Federal Commissioners seems to me unclear at the moment.
Whereas on the one hand, the Federal Commissioner has been appointed by the
Reich President and sworn in by him personally, and whereas, as regards salary,
he is also on the same level as the Reich Ministers, on the other hand he is
subject to instructions from the Reich Ministry of the Interior. With this new
law it is now not quite clear whether the Federal Commissioner has retained his
old position or whether he has become an authority subordinate to the Reich
Ministry of the Interior. Owing to this lack of clarity, there is uncertainty
about the actions of the Federal Commissioner. One is often in the position of
not knowing whether one is allowed to act independently in accordance with the
policy of the Fhrer, or whether one is merely an executive organ of the Reich
Ministry of the Interior.

If
the old position of the Federal Commissioner is to be retained, the
subordination to the instructions of the Reich Ministry of the Interior must be
of a purely general character and this fact should be manifest in externals as
well. Just as one Reich Ministry cannot give orders to and make requests of
another Reich Ministry, but must invite it to do something, the same practice
should be observed towards the Federal Commissioner. But in fact the practice
has developed of the Federal Commissioner himself (not only his office)
receiving orders signed by some minor Berlin bureaucrat and certified by some
Chancellery secretary....

I
do like clarity in all things. It is in such external matters that one's
position is defined for officialdom and for the public. I can very well imagine
that the professional bureaucracy is happy to make use of the opportunity of
reducing the position of the Federal Commissioner below that intended by the
Fhrer. But I also recall the words of the Fhrer during a conference of
Federal Commissioners when he declared: "You are the first Federal
Commissioners and what you make of this position will determine what it will be
in the future." This comment by the Fhrer gives me the right to make this
inquiry.

The Minister of the
Interior responded forcefully to this challenge to his authority, and insisted
upon the letter of the law which acknowledged his legal powers.

4 June 1934 Reich Minister of the Interior
Frick to the Reich Chancellery

If
we are to support the idea of a central and unified leadership of the Reich
through the Reich Chancellor and the departmental ministers assisting him, who,
corporately with the Reich Chancellor,form the Reich Government, then it is impossible to leave differences of
opinion between a departmental minister on the one hand and a [local] governor
on the other ... to be decided by the Reich Chancellor. On the contrary, the
decision of the Reich Minister who represents the Reich Government in his area
of responsibility must be accepted by the Federal Commissioner without allowing
him a form of legal redress against the decision of the Reich Minister in the
field of legislation.

Despite the fact that this
interpretation is clearly supported by the law of 30 January 1934 which Hitler
had accepted,Frick's appeal was
denied.As in so many other
cases,apparently Hitler was not
prepared to delineate clear lines of authority .This is one of the most important aspects of the new Third Reich

27 February 1934 State Secretary Lammers to
Minister Frick

The
Reich Chancellor agrees that, generally speaking, differences of opinion
between a departmental minister and a Federal Commissioner on the legality or
expediency of a Federal Law cannot be referred to the Chancellor for his
decision. In the Chancellor's view an exception must be made for those cases
which are concerned with questions of special political importance. In the view
of the Reich Chancellor such a regulation is consistent with his position of
leadership.

The Role of the NSDAP

From
these exchanges,it became clear
that as late as mid-1934,tone
could not speak confidently of a fully united and Gleichgeschaltete Germany.A similar ambiguity existed about the
role of the Nazi Party.From the
start,Hitler did not have a clear
idea of future relationship for Party and State. In early 1933, with the
excesses of local SA groups,the
main danger seemed to be that the Party might get out of hand. One suggestion
was to integrate the Party within the State institutions.This approach found expression in the
following law issued directly after the successful plebiscite of November 1933.

Although
many historians have viewed this law as the triumph of the Party over the
State, and the final piece in the powerful structure of the Third Reich,a close reading of the wording of the
text shows remarkably ambiguity.˙

1 December 1933 Law to Ensure Unity of Party
and State

Article
1

After
the victory of the National Socialist revolution, the National Socialist German
Workers' Party is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is
inseparably linked with the State.It is a corporation under public law.

Article
2

The deputy of the Fhrer [Rudolf Hess]
and the Chief of Staff of the SA [Ernst Rhm] will become members of the Reich
Government in order to ensure close cooperation of the offices of the Party and
the SA with the public authorities.

Article
3

Members of the National Socialist German
Workers' Party and the SA (including their sub-ordinate organizations),as the leading and driving force of the
National Socialist State, will carry greater responsibilities towards Fhrer,
Volk and State. In the case of violation of these duties, they will be subject
to special jurisdiction by Party and State. The Fhrer may extend these
regulations to include members of other organizations.

Article
4

Every
action, or failure to carry out an action, on the part of members of the SA
(including their subordinate organizations), which threatens the existence,
organization, activity or reputation of the National Socialist German Workers'
Party, in particular any infringement of discipline and order, will be regarded
as a dereliction of duty.

Article
5˙

Custody and detention may be imposed in
addition to the usual penalties.

Article
6

The
public authorities are bound to grant legal and administrative assistance to
the offices of the Party and the SA, which are entrusted with the exercise of
jurisdiction over the Party and the SA.

Article
7

The
law of 28 April 1933 regarding the authority to inflict penalties on members of
the SA and SS is revoked.

Article
8

The
Reich Chancellor, as Fhrer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party and
as supreme commander of the SA, will issue the regulations required for the
execution and augmentation of this law, particularly with regard to the
juridical organization and procedure of the Party and the SA. He will determine
the date on which the regulations concerning this jurisdiction will become
effective.

By
the law, significantly, neither Party nor State could claim superiority to the
other. For, while the Party is called "the bearer of the concept of the
German State," no legal or institutional application follows.In addition, by placing theDeputy Fhrer (Hess) and the Chief of
Staff of the SA(Rhm) in the Federal Cabinet as Ministers, the Party appeared
to become subordinate to the State.

The
only unqualified gain for the Party in this law was its new right to claim
financial support from the State.Even here, however, its budget was now subject to the Reich Finance
Minister, however little power the non-Nazi Schwerin von Krosigk, could
exercise.Still, the law seems to
imply that the State Apparatus was in charge.

Obviously,Hitler was himself unsure of what he
wanted the Party to become.At a
conference of Gauleiters he seemed to assert that the NSDAP existed solely for
propaganda and indoctrination purposes, and to perform auxiliary functions for
the State In this speech,Hitler
was clearly anxious about political divisions developing within the Party. This
important document shows Hitler's characteristic way of handling conflict
giving speeches in which he asserts that there is no conflict.

2 February 1934 Hitler Speech to the
Gauleiters

The
F hrer stressed: The most essential tasks of the Party were:

1.
to make the people receptive for the measures intended by the Government;

2.
to help to carry out in the nation at large those ordered by the Government;

3.to support the Government in every way.

Furthermore,
the Fhrer stressed that those people who maintained that the revolution was
not finished were fools; they did this only with the intention of getting
particular jobs for themselves. The Fhrer described the difficulties he had
had in filling all the posts with the right people and went on to say that we
had people in the Movement whose conception of revolution was nothing but a
permanent state of chaos. But we needed an administrative apparatus in every
sphere which would enable us to realize National Socialist ideas at once. And
to achieve this, the principle must remain valid that more orders must not be
given, and more plans must not be discussed than the apparatus could digest;
there must be no orders and plans beyond what could be put across to the people
and actually carried into effect. The question of the amalgamation of Party and
State was of fundamental importance; upon it Germany's future essentially
depended.

The
Fhrer described our main immediate task as the selection of people who were on
the one hand able, and on the other hand willing, to carry out the Government's
measures with blind obedience. The Party must bring about the stability on
which Germany's whole future depended. It must secure this stability; this
could not be done by some monarchy or other. The first Fhrer has been chosen
by fate, the second must have,right from the start,a
faithful, sworn community behind him. Nobody with his own power base must be
chosen! What is vital is that he should have everyone completely behind him
from the outset. This fact must be well known, and it will then be clear that
there is no point in trying to assassinate him.

Apart
from this: Only one person at a time can be Fhrer.Who it is, is not so important; the important thing is that
everybody should back up the second and all subsequent leaders. An organization
with such inner solidity and strength will last for ever; nothing can overthrow
it. The sense of community within the movement must be inconceivably intense.
We must have no fighting among ourselves, no differences must be visible to
outsiders! The people cannot trust us blindly if we ourselves destroy this
trust. If we destroy other people's trust in us, we destroy our own trust in
ourselves.

Even
the consequences of wrong decisions must be mitigated by absolute unity. One
authority must never be played off against another. There must be only oneview,
that of the Movement. To work against someone in an official position, who
embodies part of this authority, is to destroy all authority and trust
completely.

There
must therefore be no superfluous discussions! Problems not yet decided by
individual officials must under no circumstances be discussed in public.
Otherwise this will mean passing the decision on to the mass of the people.
That was the crazy idea behind democracy. By doing that, the value of any
leadership is squandered. The man who has to make decisions must make them himself
and everyone else must back him up. The authority of even the most junior
leader is the sum of the authority of all leaders and vice versa.

Apart
from this, we must carry on only one fight at a time. The saying, "Many
enemies, much honor" should really run: "Many enemies, much
stupidity." In any case, the whole nation cannot engage in twelve
campaigns at the same time and understand what is involved. For this reason, we
must always instill the whole nation with only one idea, concentrate its attention
on one idea. In questions of foreign policy it is particularly necessary to
have the whole nation behind one as if hypnotized. The whole nation must be
involved in the struggle as if they were passionate participants in a sports
contest. This is necessary because if the whole nation takes part in the
struggle, they also will be losers. If they are not involved, only the
leadership loses. In the one case the wrath of the nation will rise against the
opponent, in the other against their leaders.

Of course, the average
German was unaware of the divisions and conflict within the party.To them, the NSDAP appeared to be a
triumphant monolith,which was
sweeping everything before it.To
a large extent, this outcome is the result of Hitler's brilliant approach to
politics.The Big Lie could be
employed to persuade people that everything was under control.The whole idea of the "Third
Reich" was a created fiction.

Many Germans, of
course,found this alleged uniform
development appalling.Once
again,we return to early 1933.

30 April 1933 Erich Ebermayer Diary Entry

Yesterday to the theater and afterwards
I drove my friend the actor A G and his wife to their home. G has up to now certainly
been anything but a Nazi, and yet as he got out of the car I saw that under his
coat, on his vest, he wore the Party Badge! I was dumbfounded.

Coolly
and calmly he explained that he had no desire to be stood against the wall by
the Nazis.You had to cooperate
with them, therefore, and it made no difference whatsoever whether your heart
was with them or not. And it was certain that the Nazis would not soon simply
disappear.Thus we all had the responsibility
to cooperate and thereby prevent stupid things from happening.... He could only
strongly advise me to become a party member....

For
over an hour we sat in the car before his house and discussed the matter. I
explained to G why I simply could not do it. Why I would feel I was betraying myself,
my youth, my entire being, my honor and my reputation if I now became a
National Socialist. Above all, I declared, I did not believe that we
"reasonable people" could neutralize the poison of the Nazi movement.
On the contrary, I was convinced that they would eventually infect all of us,
if we cooperated with them.

Very
well, replied G rather annoyed, then I had only myself to blame if the future
passed me and my work by. I'll have to risk that, I replied. If all the leading
Nazis were as decent and well-intentioned as he claims, then they would have to
respect one who remained true to his convictions more than the millions who now
changed their beliefs like a worn-out shirt.

We
certainly had a sharp falling out, but the fight always remained friendly and
good-natured.The worst thing is
that G simply does not understand me, and from his point of view as an actor
probably can't understand me. He wants to move up, to have a career; he
undoubtedly is the most gifted young actor in Leipzig. Why should politics
bother him.